


Gears of War: Angels Fall

by TheKingRaven091



Category: Gears of War (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2020-12-09 06:43:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20990537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKingRaven091/pseuds/TheKingRaven091
Summary: After years of fighting and personal loss, Scott Hollan is an exhausted soldier in charge of one of the last commando squads the Coalition of Ordered Governments has, Sigma-Two. Ephyra has just fallen to the Locust Horde and hundreds of civilians are dead, his wife among them. Now he must figure out how to be a single father and soldier trying to prevent the extinction of the human race.Sigma-Two is sent to the Northbay Birthing Creche by Chairman Prescott for a brief reprieve from months of frontline duty following a failed push to retake Ephyra's southern quadrant from the Locust. While there Scott meets a woman in dire circumstances of her own and now with time to actually sit and catch his breath, bad memories from Emergence Day come back to him all while he and his fellow Gears have to deal with the abusive security force of the Northbay Creche.Mostly OCs with a few canon characters making appearances throughout. This story is going to try to stay as close to the canon of the games/novels as possible.





	1. Chapter 1

**1200 hours, Archangel, Tyrus - Two Weeks After the End of the Pendulum Wars, Four weeks before Emergence Day**

Life has a funny way of kicking you in the ass sometimes. I spent every spare moment I had during the war thinking of home, but now that I'm home I can't stop thinking about the war and my old unit. The sounds of celebration can be heard clearly from the city streets outside, the streets are packed with civilians and Gears on leave celebrating the end of almost a century of constant warfare. Warfare that I had only been part of for just five years. I hadn't been the most law abiding of teenagers and racked up an impressive criminal history by the time I was eighteen and thrown in front of a judge who decided a stint in the army would teach me the discipline and respect for authority that I was missing. Two days later I was in a bus with a dozen other Gear recruits on our way to basic.

Maybe it was because soldiering came easy to me, or because of my bad record with the Archangel PD, that Captain Darryn Koneth took an immediate interest in me and made sure I found my way into the Ninety-First Tyran Strike Brigade, Special Tactics Group. One of a handful of elite COG Special Forces Units. I was immediately thrown into the fire operating behind enemy lines in the Ostri Front, where I was able to put my destructive talents to real use.

I was good at it. The anger and hatred I had harbored inexplicably as a kid disappeared with every successful mission and as I formed bonds with the other Gears in my unit. I saved lives and I took lives. All the killing I did never really bothered me, I always thought that every Indie soldier I killed was one less Indie soldier who would try to kill fellow Gears. It wasn't something I lost a lot of sleep over, hell it still isn't.

For all the celebration in the streets and bars and restaurants outside my apartment building it isn't really a feeling I can share with the thousands of other Archangel citizens. Constant deployment behind enemy lines took its toll on me and only a few months before the end of the Pendulum Wars I was given an honorable discharge from active service at the rank of Sergeant due to what the army doctor called 'combat induced stress'. They felt I was a liability to the Gears around me and threw me out just as quickly as they had sucked me in. All I have now are my COG tags, the commando knife I had been given after finishing training, a few unit tattoos and the snub pistol I had pilfered from the COG armory before leaving.

So once all the celebration is over all of the Gears on leave will return to their barracks and I'll be stuck here in a small apartment. It is probably for the best though, with the Pendulum Wars over the COG controls almost every nation on the planet. The only UIR states left fighting are small and insignificant ones like Gorasnya and the COG can stomp on them at their leisure. Still though I'd rather be twiddling my thumbs in an Army Barracks with other Gears for company rather than trying to find an honest job to fill the gap in my life. I can see a little of the celebrations in the street out of a window in my apartment and even with the thick glass and being several stories up the yelling and cheering sounds as if I'm right on the street. Curiosity gets the better of me and I step outside my apartment and walk to the window at the far end the corridor, it is a far better view than the one I have in my apartment.

The mass of people in the street is truly something to behold, thousands of people clad in COG blue and silver are everywhere. The closest thing I can remember that resembles what I am seeing now was when the Sabers beat the Eagles for a spot in the thrashball playoffs. Royal blue banners are hanging over the streets connected from light pole to light pole with the word VICTORY emblazoned in silver letters. Blue and silver confetti covers what little of the asphalt that I can see. There were probably going to be even more fireworks displays once the sun went down, just like the previous night and the night before that and the night before that.

The strange thing is that no one seems to be upset by the constant noise. There are several older tenants in my building and all of them seem perfectly happy to put up with the nonstop cacophony taking place all day and night. I can't help but wonder how much longer people will keep this up before they get bored and things go back to being normal. Who am I kidding there won’t be a normal, things will be a lot different without the threat of a UIR attack hanging over the population's collective heads. The sound of a door shutting makes me turn my head and my hand reaches down to my thigh where my pistol would normally have been, threat assessment and response is still hardwired into my brain from training.

Shit I'm only a few months removed from active duty, five years of special forces training isn't going to be suppressed that quickly and probably never will fully be suppressed at all. It was a woman who lived up the hall from me. I've only seen her a few times and each occasion wasn't long enough for more than an acknowledging nod or smile. Its only when she makes eye contact with me that I realize I don't remember her name.

She smiles at me and starts walking over carrying a laundry basket in her left arm. Automatically my mind begins to analyze her, she has to be in her early twenties like me with long dark hair that she almost always wears in a messily tied ponytail. Her clothing, a loose fitting tanktop and a pair of jean shorts, seemed on the older side which means they are probably comfortable clothing one would wear on a day off. None of the clothing I can see in the basket seems to be high end just more jeans and t-shirts, but I'm no fashion expert. Her skin is on the pale side, almost bleached looking like you get from spending a lot of time in front of a computer monitor.

Overall she isn't unattractive, her body seems to be in decent physical shape though it isn't anything like the physique of some of the female Gears I've seen. She's about a head shorter than me. The casual smile on her face is pleasing and for some reason makes me smile back at her.

“Enjoying the celebrations?” she asks me as she steps up to the other side of the window and peers out of it.  
“I have to admit it is quite a view.”

She nods her head. “Yeah, I can't ever remember when everyone in the city was this happy. I haven't seen one person argue in this building in the last few days, that includes the old couple down the hall.”

I know who she's talking about. I have the misfortune of being their neighbor with pretty thin walls. But they've been unusually quiet and even smile at me when I pass one of them in the hallway.

“They're old enough to probably remember how the war started,” I say. “I can't blame them for being happy it is over, the old man probably served at some point.”

“Like you?” She says looking at me for the first time since joining me by the window. “You're in the army right?”

I don't know what to say for a few seconds. I've hardly ever spoken to this woman, let alone have I ever mentioned being a Gear. The confusion must show on my face because she laughs playfully and points at my chest. I look down and my COG tags have slipped out from inside my shirt. I still can't bring myself to take them off because it'll be a confirmation that my time in the army is truly over and not some bad dream I'll wake up from.

“Those mean you're a Gear right?” She asks again.

I reach down and grip one of the tags between my thumb and index finger and grunt. “I used to be, Sergeant Scott Hollan.”

“Chelsea,” She says extending her free hand. “Chelsea Ritter, part time barista, full time computer junkie.” Called it. I take her hand and give it a gentle shake, my grip could crush her hand in a dozen places if I'm not careful. “So if you're a Gear why aren't you down there having fun? There isn't anyone down there who would turn down buying you a drink or two.”

“I said I used to be a Gear, I was discharged.”

“Really, well I still think you can get a night of free drinking, just walk into any bar on the street with those tags out.” She cocks her head slightly. “Me and a few friends are going out tonight, we would love to have the company of a Gear, active or not.”

  
“Sorry but I've already got plans.” I lie, I don't feel like socializing much tonight even though I know it would do me some good. “Alcohol isn't really my thing anyway, I'm more of a coffee guy.” It’s the truth, not meant to be some cheesy pick up line that she takes it for, which I realize she must be thinking after telling me she is a barista. She smiles at me though, obviously happy that a Gear had made a pass at her, accidental though it was.

“I work at the coffee shop on the corner so come by and see me sometime and you can get your coffee fix on me.”

“Count on it.”

She gives me a toothy grin and walks away back down the corridor towards the elevator with significantly more sway in her hips. I can't help but eye her over as she walks, my eyes lingering on her lower half more than anything else. A woman would make life easier, it would give me someone else to focus all my thoughts and energy on. I look back down at my COG tags for a few moments and back up at the swaying hips of a lovely young neighbor who'd been so taken by them.

Go army.


	2. Chapter 2

**1240 hours, East Barricade Academy, Tyrus – Ten Years after Emergence Day, three months after the Battle of Ephyra**

The blood pounded in his ears and he could feel the strength of each footfall vibrate up into his knees as he sprinted across the shattered street towards the enemy. Hostile rounds zoomed past him, missing by millimeters.

He rolled forward, landed on his shoulder and came up behind cover, a burned-out car that had once been someones prized possession. He sighted up on the nearest Locust and depressed the trigger of his Lancer. His adrenaline was flowing so hard through his body that he didn’t even feel the kick of the rifle against his shoulder.

He watched as his target spasmed with the impact of the rifle rounds and fell backwards and lay there in the street unmoving before moving onto the next. He vaulted over the wrecked vehicle and back into the street, firing as he went. He ducked into an alley and dropped the spent magazine from the Lancer and loaded up a fresh one. There wasn’t any sound as reassuring to him as the distinctive _click_ of a full magazine sliding home into the receiver.

“GROUNDWALKER!” something yelled to his right and a Locust drone rushed him, a stolen Lancer rifle in his own scaly hands.

Instinct kicked in and he brought his rifle up, yanking back on the charging lever. There was brief moment where the stench of exhaust filled his nostrils as the chainsaw bayonet roared into life with a savage anger. He brought the Lancer down on the drone who made the same movement with his own pilfered rifle. The roaring chainsaws collided and spit sparks and bits of metal at the two combatants. His muscles bulged with effort as he used all of his strength against the scaly, gray horror in front of him.

The drone roared at him and he roared right back, just as loud as the chainsaw, the veins in his neck popping and his face going red. The drone’s Lancer blinked first and dropped just a fraction of a centimeter but even that small amount was enough. He slashed his Lancer diagonally and the teeth of the chainsaw bit into the rough flesh. Blood and muscle and bone gushed from the wound as he forced the weapon down through the right collar bone and into the left ribcage, cutting all the major organs and arteries in its path.

It smacked him in the face and his forearms and across his armor. It was hot and foul smelling, but he never stopped screaming at the Locust even after it went limp. The drone’s legs gave out and he gave one hard yank on the Lancer’s handle to free it as the body began to fall. He spit the foreign blood out of his mouth and pushed the revolting taste out of his mind.

He could hear people talking but the rage pounding in his head made it sound like it was far away. Something clamped onto his shoulder and he spun towards it and stopped at the last second. It was a squad mate, a big South Islander with his jet-black hair braided to his skull in two long strands and his massive arms embroidered with swirling tattoos.

“We copy Control, Sigma-Two is moving to the exfil point.” Another man was saying, one finger in his ear and a concerned gaze focused on him.

“Command has called it on EBA Sarge,” The Islander said. “We’re heading back to Jacinto.”

That was the worst news that he could have heard at that moment. It had been three months since the Locust had taken East Barricade Academy and a large chunk of the city. It had also been the day that he had lost his wife.

“Scott, we need to move before the grubs cut us off from the rest of the squads.” The man who had answered the signal from Control was saying. “The Ravens aren’t going to wait for us.”

“Yeah,” Scott said snapping out of it for a moment. “Let’s get moving, Ian you have point. Niko and I will take up the rear, let’s get the fuck out of this place.”

The squad of Gears, all that was left of the 91st Tyran Strike Brigade and the small commando unit that had been attached to it, jogged back through the rubble of EBA in silence. Scott didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay and drown this place in the blood of the grubs that had taken Chelsea from him but he couldn’t, as much as his rage wanted him to.

The sound of the King Raven rotors echoed off the bombed-out buildings as the squad drew closer to the line where the COG had been able to hold off the Locust advance into the city of Ephyra. It hadn’t changed anything for the civilians in Ephyra though, they had all bugged out to Jacinto City overcrowding it even more than it already was.

They emerged into a clearing and Gears were pouring in from all other directions. A lot of them not under their own power. Most of them were bloodied, some were injured, too many were dead. Scott shook his head and looked at his squad. “Keep your eyes and ears open for grubs, I don’t think they’ll chase us this far back knowing we’ve got artillery zeroed in on every inch of this side of the barrier, but then again they’re grubs.” He shrugged. “Ian, Greg see what you can do with the wounded. Niko, just stand there and look intimidating.”

Footsteps drew Scott’s attention as another, older Gear approached him. “Looks like your boys all made it through the op Hollan. That’s good.” He stuck a gloved hand out for Scott to shake and Scott did.

“Yeah, how about your squad Avery?” Scott asked. Jay Avery was an old Gear, he should have been retired somewhere on a tropical island but here he was in among the blood and guts with the rest of his fellow Gears.

“Lost Eddie and Gil the day before. Command already have replacements for me when we reach Jacinto.” He said bluntly. It was too easy to sound dismissive about deaths these days because it was an all too common occurrence.

“Sorry.” Scott said back. It was all he could say and Avery just nodded his head.

“I heard about your wife, she was one of the good ones.” He said. “Glad to hear your boy made it to Jacinto. At least something good has happened.”

Scott just shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know how he was going to be a Gear and a single father to a ten-year-old. If something happened to Scott then there was no one there for his son. Right now his son Gaige was living in a state run facility set up for the children of Gears who had no other family to watch the child while their parent was deployed. Gaige was being fed and getting his schooling, but he was surrounded by strangers and all alone.

They hadn’t talked all that much since Scott had been sent with the taskforce of Gears to try and plug the hole in the COGs defenses in EBA, but a Control officer had managed to patch him through to his son a handful of times and that was how Scott knew Gaige was not handling things very well.

“It was a god damn waste.” Scott said as he looked at the remaining Gears as they lined up the wounded and the few dead that had been able to be recovered from the field. Most of the time the COG had to leave their fallen soldiers where they had dropped and had to settle for their COG tags as remains. “Why spend these resources to retake EBA and just call it off? Prescott and Hoffman had to know we were never going to retake all of Ephyra from the Locust.”

“Politicians.” Avery huffed. “Keeping up appearances for the civvies most likely. If they see Gears mobilizing to retake a section of city from the Locust maybe he thinks it’ll give the population a little hope.”

“When we return he’ll tell them that the Locust threat was contained for now even though it’s actually no better than it was when they took the south section of the fucking city.” Scott said as he looked over his shoulder at the flight of King Ravens as they drew closer. “At least we’ll be out of here soon.”

The lead Raven began rotating and slowing down for its landing and Avery signaled for the dead and wounded to be loaded up first. Before anyone could load anything though something rocketed over the heads of the Gears and slammed head on into the cockpit of the Raven. Smoke and flames bellowed out of the craft as it started spinning out of control.

“Nemacyst!” Niko roared as he moved to a covered position while the disabled Raven smacked into the side of what had once been an office building.

Scott looked towards the Locust held portion of Ephyra and saw several of the tiny, squid-like creatures hovering in the air, thick and noxious ink trails marking their paths through the sky.

“Sigma-Two to Control, we have Nemacysts at the exfil point. Call off the Ravens for now.” Scott radioed as he took up position beside Niko. That was when the bullets started flying and the grubs began boiling out from their positions in the buildings. “Control add a shit load of grubs to that enemy tally. We need fire support from the artillery batteries on the security perimeter!”

“Copy Sigma-Two, we’re working on it just hold them off.” The hurried voice of the female control officer came back.

“Easy for her to say!” Avery grunted.

Ian Morss slid into cover behind Scott. He had been a cage fighter from Kashkur before the Locust War and he’d developed quite the set of marksman skills. He sighted up with his sniper rifle and let loose on the Nemacyst pods keeping their airlift from rescuing them. “You’d think we would have made an automatic one of these.” He grunted as he dropped down into cover and reloaded the weapon.

“Just keep picking them off!” Scott yelled over the gunfire. “Greg, Niko move right and cover those wounded Gears.”

Gregori Natto was a young kid from Ephyra. He didn’t say all that much but he was damned good in a firefight. Scott snapped from target to target putting short burst of ammo down range on any grub that came within his sights. The loud boom of Ian’s sniper rifle was growing faster and faster as he worked the manual feeding lever with hurried precision.

“Fuck!” he yelled. “Those ‘Cysts just keep coming. There has to be a Seeder out there pumping those things out quicker than we can kill them.”

That wasn’t good. Besides producing anti-air for the grubs, a Seeder could also jam radio frequencies by producing enough Nemacysts to create an ink blackout. Ink was a noxious gas that the Locust used in many different forms and none of them were kind to the human body.

“Control, we have a possible Seeder in our vicinity. Requesting a bot for aerial recon.” Scott said as chips of concrete reigned down around him after he had been targeted by a group of Locusts.

“Negative Sigma.” Was the reply that he got. “You’ve got artillery incoming, and Armadillos are en-route for pick up instead of anymore birds.”

“How the hell are we supposed to fit all our wounded into APCs?” Scott argued.

“Figure it out Sergeant, it’s all Command can spare right now.”

“Fuck!” Scott bellowed as he looked over to Avery just in time to see the man’s chest explode. For the second time that day Scott found himself with someone else’s blood in his mouth, face and eyes. Avery fell backwards and remained motionless. Before Scott could do anything else a series of dull booms echoed up from behind him and smoke trails were rising up into the sky. “Incoming!” he yelled as the artillery shells came raining down on the Locust position.

The impact of the artillery was pure, raw power. Scott could feel the heat from the explosions and if he hadn’t been wearing all that COG armor, he was sure he would have been blown backwards by the blast wave. Dirt, concrete and grub bits flew up into the air as buildings caught in the artillery strike crumbled. Then everything was quiet, except for the ringing in his ears. Scott shook his head to clear the ringing and slowly looked up over the rubble he was crouched behind.

He couldn’t see any Locust drones and there wasn’t any more incoming fire. “Ian are we clear?” He coughed as he tried to clear the smoke from his throat and wiped Avery’s blood from his face.

The sniper scanned the buildings before nodding to his sergeant. “No more enemy movement.” Ian said and then to prove he was sure he stood up from behind his own cover.

Gears began emerging from their own shelters and took stock of the damage that had been done. Scott and his squad gathered around Avery’s body and Scott knelt down to collect the fallen Gears COG tags.

“Shit, I always thought the old bastard was going to outlive me.” A voice said. “Dax Welker, guess I just got promoted.” The man said. He was tall and well built like all other Gears but his eyes were an odd deep green.

Scott nodded and handed Dax his former sergeant’s tags. “Good luck.”

The Armadillo APCs could be heard rolling up the corner and Scott let out a long, tired sigh. He was ready to go home.

**1340 hours, Northbay Birthing Creche, Jacinto Plateau – Three Months after the Battle of Ephyra **

Doctor Howard Vickers didn’t have a very easy job. He’d been given the burden of repopulating the human race, and even though Chairman Prescott had instituted several other birthing creches in the year since the implementation of the Fortification Act, the task wasn’t so simple. Despite the critical role his group played in the survival of the species he didn’t have a whole lot of assets at his disposal. He had about twenty or so women living on the campus and almost double or triple that amount in children.

His security force weren’t frontline Gears but mostly former guards that had been reassigned from the Slab some years ago. Northbay was on the Jacinto coastline and well away from the frontlines of the Locust war that no one in military command felt that it was in enough danger to warrant a significant military presence. Which was total bullshit in his opinion. Ephyra was about a three day drive from Northbay and if the Locust wanted to they could easily reach the creche.

News of the fall of Ephyra had reached the residents of the creche and none of them felt particularly safe under the protection of the security staff on site. To be honest Vickers didn’t trust any of them to take on a single Locust drone let alone a whole horde of them. They were only good at keeping the women and children in the creche in line. Vickers turned a blind eye to their methods though, as long as the guards weren’t messing with any of the pregnant women or interfering with the work in the facility then they could do as they pleased.

Still though he needed to find a way to appease his patients before things got too out of control. Howard did the best thing that he could and wrote a letter to the Chairman asking for a small group of Gears to be dispatched to the facility so more DNA samples could be obtained. They were running low on samples and were due a resupply, in his book this was a way to kill two birds with one stone.

He’d finally gotten a response from the Chairman’s office that a group of Gears would be sent to the facility for a month. Vickers didn’t know what a ‘group of Gears’ consisted of in numbers but he was sure enough that he would get at least four. It would have to be enough for the women in the facility. The intercom on his desk buzzed into life and pulled him from his thoughts.

“Doctor Vickers? Lyssa is here to see you.” A soft female voice said over the old box.

“Ah yes, send her in please Lilian.” He said leaning back in his chair and removing a folder from his desk drawer. His office door opened and a tall woman with long blonde hair, icy blue/gray eyes and an athletic frame, stepped into the room. She stood in front of desk and looked everywhere but at him. “Please Lyssa, have a seat.”

She nodded and sat down and finally set her eyes on him. “You wanted to see me Doctor?”

“Yes I did,” Vickers said as he opened up the folder. “I see here that it has been about a year since your last birth, that would be the ninth in the ten years you’ve been here?”

“Yes sir, the last one was twins.” She said and the doctor noted the sad tinge to her voice and the way her expression shifted for a just a few seconds.

“You’re certainly the golden goose of our program, every child you’ve birthed has been a nice, healthy baby. The recent medical exams you’ve gone through show that you’re ready to go through another procedure.”

“Doctor Vickers I don’t think I can do this anymore.” She said to him. “I’m thinking about leaving the program and heading to Jacinto.”

Vickers fell quiet for a moment and glanced back at the file folder. “You have a daughter don’t you, one born before you volunteered for this program. She’s ten yes?”

“Yes but I don’t-”

“You’d rather take her to an overcrowded city where supplies are vastly limited and rationed compared to here where she has a lot more space and better quality of life. Forgive me if I’m wrong but didn’t you sign up for this program to give her all of those things?” He said watching her closely as her mouth opened and closed repeatedly as she tried to come up with an answer.

“I can’t keep doing this to myself, carrying these children only to have them taken away from me once their out of my body and not be allowed to see them ever again. I thought I’d be able to get over it, but this last time around wasn’t…it was hard.” She said swallowing.

Vickers nodded his head a few times. “I understand.” He didn’t care though, that wasn’t his problem if she got too attached to the kids she bred for the program. “Lyssa you’re not going anywhere, when you signed up for this program you became an asset of the COG. The only way you get out of here is by becoming useless to the program, which doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen with how fertile you are.” He looked up at her and fixed his gaze directly on her eyes. “It’s either you start a new process or…your daughter can begin the hormone injections to jumpstart her body’s reproductive system.”

Her eyes went wide. “No! You fucking bastard, she’s not part of this!”

Vickers grinned. “Fine, I’ll make you a deal. You continue providing us with healthy newborns and I’ll see to it that your daughter is overlooked when we start the next group of girls through the hormone process.”

Lyssa nodded her head and Vickers could tell she was fighting back tears. He found it odd that someone who’d been subjected to such things that she had in this place could be so prideful as to hide their tears. It seemed she still had some spirit left.

“I’ll do it you old bastard, but I want something else too. Tramlyn, keep him away from me. I’m tired of him waltzing into my room and forcing himself on me night after night.”

“I will speak with Security Chief Tramlyn about how he spends his nights.” Vickers said standing up. “A group of Gears will be arriving in the next few days, I’ll be pairing you up with one. Maybe some old fashioned reproduction will improve your spirits.” He waived at her to leave and the woman took no time getting up from her chair and marching out of his office.

“Lilian would you please have Chief Tramlyn report to my office.” Vickers called out to his receptionist. “Now.”

The receptionist, her stomach swollen with a child of her own, nodded her head. “Yes Doctor.”

It didn’t take long for the head of security to come walking into the office with all the arrogance of a snot-nosed spoiled sixteen year old who’d just gotten a brand new car from daddy. Derak Tramlyn was all brawn and no brains, he created more problems than Vickers liked to admit but every woman in the facility was intimidated by him and that was a useful tool.

“Tramlyn, Alyssa Rayne is now hands off. She’s going to be starting her next birthing process and I don’t need her any more stressed out than she is now.”

“Stressed out?” Tramlyn said crossing his large arms over his chest. “What the hell does she have to be stressed about. Her and that brat of hers already get triple the food rations, have the best room in the whole campus and pretty much anything else they want around here.”

“She provides results Tramlyn, therefore she gets better treatment. You know that.” Vickers said with a shake of his head. “No more late night intrusions, or during any other time of the day until she’s delivered this baby. Then I could give a damn what you do with her.”

Tramlyn grunted. “Is that all Howard?”

“No, we’ll be hosting a detachment of Gears shortly. I don’t know how many are coming, Jacinto Command wasn’t clear on that point but I’ll need you to prepare your staff for their arrival. I need them on their best behavior, save the rowdiness for when they’re gone.”

Tramlyn rolled his eyes. “Yes dad.” He said as he turned and left the office.

“Insufferables, every last one of them.” Vickers grumbled as he sat back down behind his desk and went back to reviewing his files.

\------

Lyssa stormed down the hallway fuming. She was mad at herself for selling her body to this hellhole for some extra food and a soft bed. Ten years of this had worn on her mental state a lot more than she’d thought it would. Things hadn’t been all that bad for the first couple years, it wasn’t until Tramlyn and his group transferred over from the maximum security prison people called The Slab that things had gone sour.

That was when the brutality started, then the rapes not too long after that. Something in her mind told her that even if Vickers had let her leave this place after their meeting that she’d never would have made it back to Jacinto and her daughter would have been brought back and put through this same hell against her will.

She left the administration building and proceeded back towards the apartments. Northbay was an old college campus that had been converted into a birthing farm two years after the Fortification Act had been put into place. It was a series of five buildings in a horseshoe shape with a large green plot of land situated between them all. One building was where Vickers and his staff conducting their administrational duties, one was a medical facility and maternity ward with a research center right beside it. There was also a building that doubled as a cafeteria and lodging for the residents, more like prisoners, of the creche and the final one was a small security building where Tramlyn and his goons kept the small supply of weapons and vehicles locked up.

The beauty of the location belied the horrible shit going on inside the buildings. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave herself a tight squeeze as she walked out into the green to a small stone bench. She took in a long shaky breath before letting it out.

“Hey, Lyss. I guess things didn’t go so well with the Doc then?”

A young brunette sat down on the bench beside her and gave Lyssa a sympathetic look. Lyss nodded her head once without looking at the woman. “Yes Van, it went about as shitty as you could expect.” She said looking out at the coastline. “He threatened to have Jenna be put through hormone injections if I didn’t agree to another pregnancy. He said that I’m COG property and the only way I can leave this place is if I can’t have any children.”

Van let out a long sigh. “Shit that does sound like a bad day.”

Lyssa shrugged her shoulders. “He agreed to keep Tramlyn off my case, not that it matters anyway. Vickers told me we’re having some Gears come up to stay for a while and he’s pairing me up with one of them. Apparently he believes some ‘old fashioned breeding’ might lift my spirits. It’s just replacing Tramlyn with another sweaty meathead.”

Van perked up at hearing that Gears were coming. “Hell Lyss maybe if you make a good impression on this guy he’ll do something about Tramlyn! Maybe that’s how you get out of here! They only send Gears with big medals and connections to the breeding farms anyway, he might be able to get you and Jenna out of here.”

Lyssa shook her head but couldn’t help but smile at her friend. “Van it never ceases to amaze with how shitty things are that you still have such optimism.” She wrapped an arm around her friend and pulled her into a brief hug.

“Hey someone has to do it.” Van grinned at the blonde. “It can’t hurt to try though, so turn on the charm for this one. See what happens.”

Lyssa stood up. “I’ll think about it, but only to shut you up.” She said as she started walking off towards the housing building. “I’ll see you later Van, I’ve got to go and make sure my kid gets something to eat before all those other little vultures clean out the cafeteria.”

She spent the short walk to the housing building thinking about her friends words. Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to try and get on the good side of one of the Gears that showed up to the farm, but she doubted that she’d be that lucky.


	3. Chapter 3

**1400 Hours, Wrightman Base, Jacinto City – Three Months after the Battle of Ephyra**

Scott climbed out of the APC and his boots hit the solid ground with a loud thud. Families had gathered around Wrightman Base waiting for their loved ones who’d been sent to try and retake Ephyra to return home. Right away he could already see the grimness settling over the crowd when they saw how small the returning group of soldiers was.

It was like pouring salt in the still fresh wound not seeing Chelsea’s face in that crowd. The sobbing didn’t start until the wounded and dead were unloaded and Scott couldn’t stick around to watch it. He needed a shower and a shave before he did anything else.

“Sergeant Hollan!” A voice cried out into the hallway that had once been an emergency room entrance. The central command base for the COGs entire military was now packed into an old hospital in the center of the city.

Scott rolled his eyes and turned around, as did the rest of his squad, to see a Control officer sprinting towards them. It was a dangerous maneuver given the high heels that Control officers were required to wear. “Lieutenant Nett, thanks for the artillery support. It almost flattened us.” He said tiredly.

The tiny brunette woman came to a halt a few feet from the squad of Gears. “I’m sorry Sergeant but I just got a message from the Chairman’s office, he wants to see you.” She said looking at Scott like he was some kind of alien creature.

He was covered in two kinds of blood, bits of bone and debris from collapsing buildings so maybe he did look like an alien. “Let me guess, he wants to see me right now?” Nett nodded her head and her expression changed to an apologetic one.

“I’m sorry Sergeant.”

Scott sighed and handed Niko his Lancer. “Do me a favor and see that it gets cleaned will you Niko? It’s seen its share of action today and I’m sure there are plenty of grub bits trapped in the chainsaw belt.”

“Sure thing. It’ll look just as good as new.” The big South Islander said as he took the rifle.

“You guys get some rest and some food in you while you can. I’ll go see what the Chairman wants of us.” Scott said as he removed the ball cap from his head and examined it. It was in the black and purple colors of the Archangel Sabers, his hometown thrashball team, he’d had it since E-Day and it was sort of a good luck charm. Much like the rest of him, it needed a good cleaning.

He let out a huff of air and placed the cap back on his head and turned it was backwards, hiding most of the dirt and grime that was on the front. Scott had never been within two hundred feet of Chairman Prescott, never mind being in the same room with the man. Normally Scott dealt with Majors or the odd interaction with Colonel Hoffman, but this was a whole other level. Scott was a soldier and didn’t deal with politicians, Prescott was actually the only politician left now that he thought about it. Not too many people were campaigning for the job of Chairman.

There was absolutely zero doubt in Scott’s mind that he was going to get some kind of job from the Chairman, probably something that needed discretion. Scott’s squad was most likely the only one left completely comprised of commandos. He knew of a few other guys still around who’d served in the limited pool of special forces units the COG had been developing before E-Day, but he could count them on one hand.

When Scott climbed the steps to the Chairman’s office he saw the receptionist practically recoil at the sight of him. She had probably never seen anyone as filthy as he was come to a meeting with her boss.

“Ma’am I’m Sergeant Scott Hollan. I was requested to report to the Chairman immediately.”

She looked him over once and then nodded. “He’ll be with you shortly Sergeant. Take a seat.”

Scott looked around at the chairs and then at himself. “Probably for the best if I remain standing.”

It wasn’t too long though before the doors to the office opened up and the Chairman himself was standing there staring at Scott. Scott hadn’t totally abandoned military protocol and stood at attention when the Chairman presented himself. It wasn’t for very long though and he beckoned Scott into the office with a nudge of his head. Once the doors were shut behind him Prescott turned and walked back to his desk.

“You look like hell Sergeant Hollan. Was it that bad in Ephyra?” Prescott asked him without looking up.

“No worse than anywhere else the grubs pop up sir.” Scott said bluntly.

Prescott nodded his head. “That’s a fair assessment. I’ve gone over your deployment history Sergeant, you and your squad are the entirety of what is left of the Ninety-First Tyran Strike Brigade and you’ve had quite an interesting decade.”

“Interesting isn’t what I would use to describe it sir, but yes it hasn’t been boring.” Painful, depressing and everything else, yes, but not interesting.

“I see you fought in Landown as part of the small Gear contingent there when the Locust attacked. I wasn’t aware Hoffman had sent reinforcements, that sly bastard.” Prescott said looking down at a piece of paper in front of him. “You also took part in a mission to your hometown of Archangel to obtain a supply of imulsion to bolster Jacinto’s supplies last summer. All of this on top of several dozen skirmishes and patrols and almost every major engagement we’ve had with the Locust since E-Day and your squad has never lost a man in ten years. Astonishing.”

“Permission to speak freely sir?” Scott asked. He was getting tired of the sunshine getting blown up his ass. Prescott finally looked up at him and nodded his head. “Sir what am I doing here? I’m well aware of my own service record. I’m tired, I’m hungry and I need a shower like no ones fucking business and I want to see my kid so could we please get on with the reason I’m standing in your office?”

Prescott stared at Scott for a while and then smiled at the soldier. It unsettled Scott in a way that the ugliest of grubs never managed to. Prescott moved around to the front of his desk and leaned against it.

“Your son, Gaige, I hear he’s staying in the facility for Gear children who have no guardians while their legal guardian is deployed. I am sorry about your wife by the way, if only Humanity had time to stop and grieve its losses. You’ll be happy to know I’ve had him moved to a better facility in the city where he’ll be less isolated. I know that was a concern of your based off your recent communications with him.”

Scott must have given something away in his face because Prescott adopted an expression that could only be called predatory and that was not something Scott was used to being on the receiving end of.

“Sergeant I have a job for you and your squad. I’m sending you to Northbay. The director of the facility there has been requesting a stronger Gear presence there ever since Ephyra fell.”

“A facility?” Scott said. “Northbay was a college town last I heard, it emptied out after E-Day. What kind of facility would need Gears there?”

“We appropriated the college campus after the Hammer Strikes and instituted a birthing creche there. You might know it better as a ‘breeding farm’ since that’s what the Gear vernacular has come to call them.” Prescott said with a shake of his head. “It’ll be a one month deployment because that’s as long as I can spare to have two squads of Gears off the frontlines right now. Treat it as a sort of vacation, these birthing facilities are well stocked and have certain amenities that we lost long ago here in Jacinto.”

“When do we leave sir?”

“Within the hour.” Prescott said.

“Sir but my kid-”

“Will be perfectly safe where I have moved him in the city. The Locust aren’t likely to move on Northbay since the only human population is in the birthing creche, less than one hundred people total, so the chances of you being killed in action are about as non-existent as they can be.” Prescott interjected. “I think we both know your son doesn’t need to see you in this kind of shape either. I’ll see to it that you have consistent contact with him while you’re deployed, go to Northbay and recuperate from all the fighting you’ve been doing. If any Gear has earned it, it is certainly you and your squad.”

Scott dropped his head a bit but then looked back up at Prescott. “Yes sir.” What was he going to do, argue with the Chairman of the COG? No. If his orders were to go to the Northbay Birthing Farm then that is where Scott and his team were going.

“Very good. The director of the facility is named Howard Vickers, he’ll greet you when you arrive later this evening. You might have to get your shower at the facility Sergeant.”

“It’s only blood sir,” Scott said. “Not the first time I’ve been covered in it.”

A few moments later Scott was heading out of the office of the Chairman and back down to his squad to tell them that they had less than an hour to get their shit in order and head back out on a bullshit security job. Then again maybe a month away from the grubs and the grim reality that life had become in Jacinto City would be good for the team, even if it meant it was another four weeks before Scott got to see his kid again.

“Niko, grab the guys and meet me at the northern helipad. The Chairman has a job for us, should be an easy one.” He said as he pressed his finger to his earpiece and ignored the looks that he got from the staff inside the High Command building. He ducked off into the men’s room and did the best he could to scrub some of the dried blood off of his face but it was an almost futile effort.

He looked at himself in the cracked mirror and shook his head. He looked like shit and he felt like shit. He doubted that he’d be able to get any real sleep at this Northbay facility but even getting in just a couple of solid hours might do him some good. He dried off his face and replaced the ball cap over his head and continued down to the landing pad. The rest of Simga-Two was already there waiting for him along with the other squad that would be coming with them.

Scott recognized one of the Gears from the other squad, it was that Dax guy he’d met just an hour earlier. “So Prescott roped you into this too?” Scott said to the man once he stepped onto the landing pad.

Dax Welker was the picture perfect model for a COG recruitment poster. He was tall and well chiseled with a square jaw and blonde hair that was too long for regulation but Scott could have cared less. “Looks that way Sergeant.” He said as he stomped out a cigarette with his boot. Scott wondered where the Gear had gotten one of those from. “I got a promotion to squad leader and paired up with these misfits from Victor-Nine; Corporal Fredrick Melendez, and Privates Nate Beller and Shawn Dwyer.” Dax said pointing at each of his squad members.

Scott nodded at them in turn and introduced his squad. Gears didn’t usually spend very long on greetings these days because odds were no one was going to live long enough to get to know anyone new. “You got any details on this mission Sarge?” Dwyer asked. “We were in the mess when we got the call to mobilize.”

Scott saw his squad all look to him, silently looking for the same answers. “Prescott has one of those breeding farms up the coastline, the ladies there have been a little shaken up by the fall of Ephyra and the director of the facility wants Gears on the ground. We’ll be there for a month because that’s how long Prescott can afford to keep us off the frontlines.” He said to the seven other men.

Niko walked up to Scott and handed him the Lancer rifle that Scott had given him to clean. The damn thing did indeed look like it was brand new.

“Well if it’s on the Jacinto coastline and close enough to Ephyra that it has the people their worried it can only be one of a handful of cities, but I’d thought they’d all been evacuated years ago.” Ian said.

“Some college town.” Scott said. “Prescott doesn’t think it’ll become a target for the grubs because the human footprint is too small to draw attention, less than one hundred people he says.”

“It has to be Northbay.” Gregori said in one of his rare moments of verbal communication. “It’s the only college town near the Jacinto coastline.”

“Shit the grubs will attack any human settlement. Just look at how many Stranded outposts have been decimated by them since the Hammer Strikes. All they need is some kind of sign of human population.” Dax said as he started walking towards the Raven that would be taking them to the farm. “How’s he expect eight Gears to act as security for one hundred people, especially if the grubs are less than a few days away if we’re heading to Northbay?”

“I guess the facility has its own security forces but they aren’t Gears.” Scott said as he climbed up into the crew bay of the Raven. “And the grubs can tunnel to us a lot faster than we can travel by air or APC. If they get wind of us being there then I’d say we’ll have a day, maybe less before they come after us.”

“You always were full of sunshine Sergeant Hollan.” The Raven pilot said as she leaned her head out from the cockpit.

“Of course they’d stick us with you for this trip Marisi. Just get us there in one piece. I didn’t go through this whole war just to die because some sky jockey forgot how to operate her plane.”

“Darla isn’t a plane you meathead!” Marisi said matter of fact like. “She’s a helicopter and she’s very sensitive when it comes to people calling her dirty names like that.”

“Oh great, a helicopter with delicate feelings. What could go wrong there?” Ian said as the eight Gears all crammed into the crew bay and the rotors began to spin up.

“Buckle up Gears, we’ve got ourselves a pretty long flight and barely enough fuel to get there, gonna be an interesting flight.”

Scott and the rest of Sigma all smirked at each other but the guys in Victor-Nine didn’t seem to see what was so funny. Scott pulled his cap down his face and settled in for the flight. “Wake me once the facility is in sight. Try to get some sleep Gears, might be the only chance you get for a while.”

**1900 Hours, Northbay Birthing Creche Security Office, Jacinto Plateau – Three Months after the Battle of Ephyra**

Derak Tramlyn was not a happy man.

Not only had his prime source of enjoyment been taken from him but now he was being pushed out of his role as head of security for the Northbay Farm by some muscle headed Gears. He’d served nine years as a guard in the most notorious prison in the entirety of the COG, he was pretty confident in his abilities to corale a bunch of pregnant women and snot nosed children.

He’d had a deal with Vickers. As long as the women kept producing children and he kept things in order he could have his pick of any of the non-pregnant stock and do with her what he wished. It appeared that deal was now out the window because Alyssa Rayne was now being given to one of the Gears to be impregnated by.

Tramlyn slammed the drawer of his desk shut and holstered his snub pistol into the small of his back. He always hated when Gears showed up here because the acted like they were better than he was, that he was supposed to treat them like they were the saviors of the human race all because they had to face the Locust. Well whoopie for them. It wasn’t his fault they weren’t smart enough to find a cushy job like he’d managed to.

There was a knock on the door and one of the other security guards leaned in. “The Raven is in bound, less than fifteen minutes out.”

Tramlyn nodded his head. “Well let’s make sure the high and mighty Gears get their red carpet welcome.” He said sourly as he exited the office.

“You really are pissed about Rayne aren’t you?” The guard said. “Damn man, there are about eighty other women in this place you could pick from.”

“I want that one Sampson.” Tramlyn said spinning on the guard and jamming a finger into the man’s chest. “I’ll be damned if I’m just going to let Vickers throw out our deal.”

Sampson shook his head but raised his hands in submission. “Fine, but you know that they just don’t send normal Gears out here, they send those medal earning badass types. The kind that tear the grubs to pieces with their bare hands. No piece of ass is worth that kind of beating.”

“Please, I’ve yet to see a Gear come through here that I’d have no problem mauling in a fight.” Tramlyn said. Compared to some of the convicts he’d had to deal with in The Slab a lot of these so called ‘badass’ Gears were small time.

Tramlyn and his underling made their way out of the security office and across the campus to the administration building. They were joined by several others from the security staff. Tramlyn breezed past Vickers’ secretary and into the man’s office. “Your Gears are almost here.”

“Ah good,” Vickers said standing up from behind his desk. “Here are the ladies I’ve selected to breed personally with a few of these Gears so you’ll need to arrange to have them all placed together.”

“I don’t like that you’ve ignored our deal Howard.” Tramlyn said crossing his arms and blocking the doctor from leaving the office. “Alyssa is mine.”

“We’ve discussed this enough already Tramlyn.” Vickers said pushing his way past the much bigger man. “Alyssa Rayne is one of our most fertile volunteers and Chairman Prescott has sent us some extraordinary soldiers to take DNA from. Four of these men have been a part of the same squad since before E-Day, something unheard of nowadays. With that kind of battle prowess imagine the kind of soldiers we could breed.”

“You’re saying those kids that I fathered with her aren’t up to your goals?” There was little doubt in Tramlyn’s mind that he hadn’t fathered at least three or four of the kids that Alyssa had birthed in her time at the farm.

“Compared to the caliber of soldier we have arriving shortly? Yes, they will be inferior.”

Tramlyn felt a strong heat come over him. He could have cared less about Vickers’ opinions about his kids, as far as Tramlyn was concerned those kids could rot. He was more pissed that Vickers felt Tramlyn was inferior.

“You can have your plaything back after she’s delivered this next child, but not before. Now go and make those living arrangements.” Vickers said pushing past Tramlyn.

Tramlyn shook his head. “I swear I’m going to kill that old fuck.”

He spent the remaining for his time waiting for the Raven drinking beer rather than making the living arrangements. He passed that task off to a subordinate. The beer here was the closest to pre-Emergence Day quality that there was. It wasn’t brewed on site though and he had no idea where it came from. All Vickers ever said was that it came from a well-stocked COG facility off-shore. Tramlyn didn’t believe that answer one bit but as long as this stuff kept rolling in, he’d be a semi-happy man.

The sound of the Raven was getting closer, but he couldn’t pick it out in the dark sky. They had to use minimal lighting at night, not so much as to attract attention from any Locust but also enough to keep the nocturnal carnivores the Kryll at bay. It wasn’t until the Raven was right on top of them that the security personnel started coming out of the buildings to greet their new guests. Even some of the women had come out of the housing building.

The Raven hovered about two meters off the ground and the Gears simply leapt out of it like it was nothing. They all landed with heavy thuds and when the stood up even Tramlyn had to agree that these were not normal Gears.

Vickers stepped forward with all the sickening hospitality of a high society socialite welcoming people into their home for a boring Tupperware party. “I’m Doctor Howard Vickers, the director of this facility. I’m quite glad you could make it here so quickly Sergeant.”

Vickers was addressing a man with a sniper rifle on his back and close shaven head. The man looked to his right to another Gear who’s armor was absolutely filthy, his face wasn’t that much better.

“I think he’s talking to you Sarge.” The sniper said. Tramlyn pinned the Kashkuri accent right away. He already hated the Gear based off that one fact alone.

The man with the dirty armor stepped forward. “I’m Sergeant Hollan, and we go were Command sends us Doctor.” The Gear said looking around at all the buildings and the gathering people. “You might want to get your people inside, in case the Kryll decide to make an appearance.”

Vickers looked to Tramlyn and Tramlyn nodded to his underlings to usher everyone back inside. “Sergeant this is our head of security Derak Tramlyn.”

For what it was worth the Gear Sergeant did extend a hand toward Tramlyn and in response Tramlyn crossed his arms over his chest and spit into the ground. The Sergeant lowered his hand and turned his attention back to Vickers.

“So, what’s the situation here?” The Sergeant asked.

“Let’s head indoors ourselves and talk.” Vickers said and lead the Gears back into the admin building. “There isn’t much we need doing in the security aspect, the Locust have never been an issue out here, but with the fall of Ephyra it has frightened some of our more fragile patients. We hope having some Gears around might assuage their fears.”

“So this really is a babysitting job?” One of the Gears sighed. “Great.”

“Shut it Dwyer.” The Sergeant said without looking over his shoulder. “You said there isn’t much that needs doing in the security field, that makes me think you’ve got other plans for us then?”

“Yes, very much so.” Vickers said as he grabbed a tablet from his desk and handed it to the Sergeant. “The order confirmation right from the Chairman himself. You eight are to be DNA donors for our project here.” Vickers said perhaps too gleefully. “You are fascinating subjects too! I suspect your progeny will be superb fighting stock.”

“Wait, what’s he on about?” The Kashkur sniper.

The Sergeant handed the tablet over his shoulder to the Gears behind him. “It means the Chairman sent us out here to breed.” Vickers could tell that that Sergeant didn’t seem as pleased with this information as he’d thought.

“What do you mean fighting stock?” another Gear asked.

“We’re working on developing the next stage of human evolution, by having superior soldiers submit their DNA to be implanted in our subjects here we hope to create a superior human race to ensure our future.” Vickers said matter of fact like, as if it was a totally mundane thing to say.

“That’s….that’s fucking crazy.” The Kashkur sniper said.

“Agreed.” The Sergeant replied.

“Sergeant please, you’ve been fighting on the frontline since E-Day. Here you’ll be open to many comforts you haven’t had in a very, very long time. How about a hot shower that lasts longer than a few minutes? An actual soft bed rather than the metal grating of a Raven bay or a cot in the barracks. Food and beverages that Jacinto ran out of years ago.”

The Gears all fell silent.

“Not to mention a nice piece of ass if that’s something you’ve been lacking.” Tramlyn added.

“I’ve heard how the guards in these breeding farms get their women and it ain’t through charm and charisma.” The sniper said.

“Hey, we keep them safe and they repay us in one of the few ways they actually can. Don’t get an attitude with me because you picked the wrong line of work.”

There was a moment where it looked like the sniper was going to do something but then the Sergeant made a very subtle turn of his head and the sniper remained still. “Look it’s been a very long day for us, we’re not running on very much sleep and we lost some friends earlier in the day so word to wise, you don’t want to play this game right now.” The Sergeant said looking right at Tramlyn.

“Right.” Vickers said clearing his throat and stepping between Tramlyn and the Gears. “You must be tired, you’ve all be assigned your own rooms. Each complete with a working shower and freshly made beds. We’ll continue this discussion in the morning once you’ve had a chance to rest. We’ll give you a tour of the grounds as well.”

“Yeah, you have no idea how good of an idea that is Doc.” The Sergeant said.

\----

Scott didn’t know what to make of this place just yet, just that it seemed too good to be true. As they were lead across the green to the housing unit he could practically feel the uneasiness growing within the Gears behind him. Dax jogged up beside him, cradling his Lancer in his large arms.

“So, what do I tell my guys, keep it in their pants or….?”

Scott rolled his eyes. “As long as they don’t force themselves on anyone and it’s all consensual then let them go at it. It is why we were sent here after all.” He said deadpan. Dax nodded his head and fell back with his squad.

He seemed like a good guy but Scott didn’t know if Dax had what it took to be a squad leader and it was highly unlikely that Dax was going to learn anything about being a squad leader during this assignment. Before they could enter the housing unit the security guard escorting them turned and held his hands up. “Sorry but you can’t bring weapons in here, too many pregnant ladies and we can’t afford any mishaps.”

Scott looked at the guard, he was young and wasn’t being pushy at all. Just doing his job. “Rifles only. We’re keeping our sidearms and combat knives.”

It wasn’t negotiation. It was what was going to happen and the guard seemed to get that. “That’s fine, you can check them out of the security office when you need them.”

The Gears unloaded their Lancers and then proceeded into the housing unit. They were spread out among the whole unit, across every floor except the top one. “We keep the top floor exclusive to the children that way if the grubs ever should find us here they won’t get swallowed up in an E-Hole.”

“Smart, but how do they get out of the building if they can’t go down?” Ian asked the guard.

“Umm…well they’d...I” The Guard stammered.

“I take it back, it’s not smart.” The sniper remarked as he walked down the hall, he and Scott were at opposite ends of the third level while Niko was on the fourth and Greg on the first. Dax and his squad were peppered between the second and third floors.

“See you in the mornin’ Sarge.” He said with a wave. Scott waved back and opened the door to the room he’d been assigned.

It was moderately sized, definitely bigger than the space he had in the barracks in Jacinto. It had a large bed and a clean shower that was calling his name even more than the fridge in the corner kitchenette was. There was something else though that caught his immediate attention. He wasn’t alone in the room.


	4. Chapter 4

**1930 Hours, Northbay Birthing Creche, Jacinto Plateau – Three Months after the Battle of Ephyra**

Lyssa watched the helicopter as it came in low and deposited its cargo of soldiers onto the green. She was standing in the doorway of the housing unit and was both overjoyed and conflicted when she set her eyes on the Gears that would be staying with them for the next month. None of them looked like big gentle giants, they looked mean and nasty. They looked like killers.

And they intimidated the security staff of the Farm.

You got pretty good at reading body language in this place and she knew right away that the guards were not so comfortable around these Gears. One of them was covered in dirt and god knows what else and he was flanked by two other men who were big and tattooed and just screamed ‘fuck with me and I’ll break you in half’.

The rest of the Gears looked like standard fare from what she had seen in frontline Gears; big and well fed but not overly menacing. Lyssa knew that she was going to be spending an awful lot of time with one of these men going forward and she wasn’t so sure she’d be treated any better by the Gears than she was the security staff.

“For the love of God would you get a look at those men.” Van said crossing her arms and sitting on the top step of the stairs that led into the housing unit. “Almost makes you feel sorry for the grubs that run into those guys.”

Alyssa looked down at her friend and raised an eyebrow.

“I said almost.”

Alyssa smirked and returned her attention to the Gears. She was scared shitless, not knowing what she was about to be subjected to, but she had to do this otherwise her daughter would be subjected to things no ten-year-old girl should be. All she knew about the Gear she’d be shacked up with was that he was a sergeant and that he hadn’t had a very pleasant last few months.

The Gears were talking with Doctor Vickers and the security staff and she decided she couldn’t watch this anymore and retreated inside to the room she’d be sharing with the sergeant.

She was wearing a simple black long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans that were a few shades lighter than her top and were tight enough to accentuate her curves in all the right ways. She’d brushed out her golden hair, so it fell flawlessly around her shoulders and stopped just above her chest. All in all, she was sure she’d make a good first impression, she just didn’t know how it would be returned. She was standing in the bathroom checking her appearance over one last time before she heard the door open and shut.

She took in a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom to see the crud covered Gear she’d seen near the front of the pack of soldiers. He just stared at her for a few seconds before moving towards the table that filled most of the tiny kitchenette. He removed his tactical belt and set it down on the table along with his pistol and one of the biggest knives she had ever seen.

“You some kind of welcoming committee or something?” He said, the tone and gravel in his voice easily catching her attention.

“Something like that.” She said after a few moments. “I’m your breeding partner.”

To her amazement he let out a low laugh. “Yeah well I won’t be needing your services. I’m not interested in breeding at the moment.”

She blinked at him a few times, not understanding what he was saying. “You do realize what this place is right? What happens here?”

“Oh, I’m well aware.” He replied looking over at her. “I’m not interested, sorry you went to all the trouble of getting dressed up.”

Her stomach dropped. This was not what she had expected at all. Normally when she was in this position and a Gear she had been assigned to laid eyes on her his hands were soon to follow. Yet this guy didn’t even bat an eyelash at her.

“Well…why not?” She asked him trying to salvage this. If she didn’t get this guy to sleep with her and knock her up she was going to be tossed back to Tramlyn and her daughter would be faced with an equally bad fate. “Am I not to your liking or something?”

The Gear sergeant leaned over the table and let out a sigh that was not to dissimilar from a big rig letting out the brakes. His head slowly turned in her direction in a manner that told her she should probably back away, but she didn’t listen. She stood there and watched clear grey eyes search her up and down.

“I think you know you’re everyone’s type. Decent rack and a nice ass, but I’m not interested and you aren’t either.”

Well that was progress. At least he liked her body. “What makes you think I’m not interested.”

The sergeant pushed himself away from the table and walked over to her and when he got up close she realized that it wasn’t crud on his armor and skin, but blood, a lot of blood. “Your body language lady. You’re tense, your jaw is clenched and you’re white-knuckling your fist at your side. You’ve been doing it since you came out of that bathroom back there.” He said turning back towards the table and started working on the straps of his torso armor. “You aren’t here under your own will, so I’m not interested.”

Alyssa hadn’t even noticed she was doing any of those things until he had pointed them out. She stared at him for a few seconds as he worked the straps and clamps of the armor. She walked over to him and reached for one of the straps and he grabbed her hand before she could so much as touch it.

“Relax, I’m just trying to help you.” She said. “I have some experience with removing COG armor.”

He fixed her with that same searching gaze he had a few moments earlier and then let go of her hand and went to work unfastening the other side of his armor. She helped him slip off the backplate and was immediately hit with a strong stench of stale sweat and dried blood.

She couldn’t help but make an automatic noise of revulsion at the stench and immediately felt bad for doing so, but the sergeant didn’t seem to care. She set the armor plate down beside the front piece on the floor by the table and finally got a good look at him. He was in top shape for a Gear, definitely someone who was frontline and received more rations than most. He was certainly bigger than Tramlyn.

“How close did you get with the Locust?” She asked quietly noting all the blood in his hair and beard and the absence of any cuts of wounds on his body big enough for it to be his own blood.

“Pretty close.” He said as he removed the ball cap he was wearing.

“You would be a Sabers fan.” She said seeing the logo. “I’m a Sharks girl myself.”

“Okay so you’re not my type then.” He said tossing the cap onto the table with the rest of his things.

He looked like he’d been run extremely ragged and she felt sorry for him. Him and hundreds of others like him were out there fighting and dying a war a thousand times more brutal than what she was being forced to endure in this place. She was getting regular food and rest, this man looked like he hadn’t seen a bed in a few years.

“Well…the shower is through that door. There are some sweatpants in the dresser that should fit you. The Doc got your size from your file, he likes to know everything about his donors.” He nodded his head and started off towards the shower. “If you want, I could clean you up a little, a shave and all that. I used to be a hairdresser before the world ended.” She shrugged and looked down at her feet for a couple seconds. “I don’t really get a chance to help people here too often, it’d be nice to not feel like livestock for once.”

“Yeah, sure.” He said after a few seconds of contemplation. “Might as well give you something to do tonight.” And with that he locked himself in the shower for the next hour.

She spent the time getting some clippers from her personal room on the floor above, the one she shared with her daughter Jenna when she wasn’t playing hostess to a Gear. When she returned to the room with the sergeant he was still in the shower and by the time he finally stepped out she had everything set up for a haircut. Alyssa looked up and couldn’t help the sharp intake of breath she took when she got a glimpse of him standing in the doorway in nothing but a pair of sweatpants.

Quickly realizing she was staring Alyssa busied herself with the hair supplies on the table as he walked over to her smelling much better than he had previously.

“You must feel a lot better.” She said grinning as he sat down.

“I do actually.” He said as he eyed over the supplies she’d gathered. “Beard or hair first?”

“I’m thinking beard.” She said reaching over and running her hand through the scruff on his face. “Clean shaved or just tightened up a little?”

“Eh, just get rid of it.” He sighed.

And that’s what she did. It took her about half an hour to remove his beard and then give him a decent trim of his hair. By the time she was done he looked like a whole new man. She swore he’d nodded off once or twice as well and that made her smile. She was standing in front of him judging her work and handed him a small mirror so he could do the same.

“Not bad lady,” He said. “You do good work.”

“Thank you.” She said genuinely grateful for an actual compliment. “My name is Alyssa, by the way, Alyssa Rayne but most people call me Lyssa.” She reached down for the tags around his neck and held one between her index finger and thumb. “Sergeant Scott Hollan, you look more like a…John or maybe even Duke.” She teased him.

“Hilarious.” He grunted as she walked over to the fridge and produced two beers and pulled up one of the other chairs at the table.

“Alright Scott,” She said. “Tell me about this woman that’s keeping you from climbing into bed with me.”

Scott placed the cap of the bottle against the edge of the table and slammed his palm against it to pop it off. “What makes you think there’s a woman?” He asked taking a long pull of the beer.

“Well it’s either that or you’re into men.” She said casually and caused him to choke on his beer. “That’s what I thought, so come on tell me about her.” She laughed.

Scott sighed and reached for his belt and pulled out a laminated picture of him, a woman and a small boy. “That’s Chelsea.” He said. “She was my wife.”

Alyssa nodded, it made sense now. “How long?”

“She died three months ago.” Scott said taking on a far away expression on his face.

“Ephyra, I’m sorry. This is your son? Did he…?” she trailed off not knowing how to finish that sentence.

“He’s in Jacinto, I haven’t seen him in about four months though. I was fighting the grubs in Timgad when then they attacked Ephyra and I was recalled to take place in the counterattack. After that I was sent here under a false premise by Chairman Prescott.”

She shook her head. Alyssa couldn’t imagine being put through all of that. She stood up and walked over to where her things were sitting on a small sofa and beckoned him to follow her. Surprisingly he did and she motioned for him to sit while she rummaged through her bag.

“This is my Jenna.” She said handing him a recently taken photo of her daughter. “I had her before I came here and signed up for the program.”

“You volunteered for this?” Scott said sitting down and taking the photo.

“Yeah, I was seventeen when E-Day happened. I was in Jacinto in the delivery room and my boyfriend was stationed in Jannermount. He never got to see her.” Alyssa said taking on her own far away expression now. “Anyways I spent the next year alone in the city with no family or anything and then the Hammer Strikes happened and the rationing and everything that followed. I found out about this place through an add the Chairman had ordered to be circulated. It was guaranteed food and shelter for my child.”

Scott nodded his head. “Necessary evils. Something I know a fair bit about.” He said handing her back the photo.

Alyssa placed it back in her bag and then just stared at Scott for a while before she stood up and walked to the bedroom and grabbed a pillow off the bed and carried it back to the sofa and dropped it at his feet. She lowered herself down onto her knees on the pillow and looked up at him.

He started to sit up but she put her hand on his chest and surprisingly he stopped moving. “Please, let me do this. After all you’ve been through it’s time for you to get something back.” She gently pushed him back onto the sofa and let her fingers draw down his chest and stomach before pressing her lips to the steel like muscles in his abdomen. “I promise, you won’t regret this.”

Her hands slipped inside the front of his sweatpants and pulled his length through the gap, gently tugging it to life as she did so. There were no more doubts in her mind, he was bigger than Tramlyn. It had been a very long time since she had been genuinely excited about performing this kind of act on someone. His breathing was starting to deepen as her lips kept moving south towards the prize in her hand. When she finally got there, she teased him with her tongue making long, slow swipes from base to tip, her blue eyes fixed firmly on him and gauging his reactions.

The moment the flat of her tongue pressed against him, his head reclined back against the sofa and he took in his deepest breath yet. On her next pass she paused at the tip of his shaft and swirled her tongue around a few times before swallowing him down, taking him into her mouth fully. This earned her the first full groan from him and the corners of her mouth curled upwards as she went to work.

Alyssa took her time, torturing this poor man. She knew just how far to push him and when to back off. For an hour she filled the room with soft sucking sounds and quiet moans while he panted and groaned. The most satisfying moment though was when his hand slipped into her hair and started guiding her, holding her down on him when she reached a highly sensitive spot or just stroking her hair, but it told her that he was sold on the activity.

When she’d decided he’d had enough she went to town on him, twisting her hands around his shaft with deep swallows accompanying each stroke. When he finally erupted it was a much bigger explosion than she had expected. The orgasm forced him bolt upright and he pushed her head down onto him as his hips shuddered and bucked upwards into her mouth with loud cries punctuating each expulsion.

Alyssa gulped down each expulsion as it hit her and when he was finished it was he who pulled her head up out of his lap by the back of her hair. Her face was slick with saliva and his own body fluids and all she could do was smile at him as she took in deep breathes. “Welcome to Northbay.”

\----

Scott laid there totally motionless as she stood up and walked to the bathroom to clean herself up. All he could think about was the lack of regret he was feeling right now. His wife had been dead for just a few months and here he was with a beautiful blonde giving him a world class blowjob and he didn’t feel bad. Had he really become that cold hearted and jaded over the ten years of war with the Locust?

Maybe he’d just been conditioned to not feel in that way anymore. Death was so common these days that people just didn’t get as close as they used to. Maybe losing so many friends in the army had prepared him for losing Chelsea?

Any excuse he came up with sounded just as bullshit as the next but he still didn’t feel bad. She was gone and she wasn’t coming back. A dead person couldn’t be disappointed or betrayed he decided. One thing he knew for certain though; he still wasn’t going to sleep with this woman. He had no intentions of bringing another child into this world and he certainly couldn’t bring himself to just leave it in a place like this.

Scott fixed his sweatpants and stood up, testing out his legs to make sure they still worked properly and walked over to the kitchenette and examined the contents of the fridge. There was food in there that he hadn’t seen in years, just like he’d been promised by Prescott.

“Shit, these people have fucking bacon.” He muttered as he pulled out a thick package of meat and examined it.

He heard laughter from the doorway and looked up over the door of the fridge to see Alyssa standing there toweling her hair off. She’d changed into a tank top that showed off a lot of her midriff and a pair of grey sweats. “You’re such a man, a girl gives you a good time and your brain automatically switches over to getting something to eat.” She grinned at him.

“Where do you people get all this shit.” He said standing up fully and motioning towards the fridge.

She shrugged. “We get a supply delivery every couple of months. Comes in from off the coast so it’s not coming from the city.” She said as she walked over to him and shut the fridge. “So…how are you doing?” She asked him.

Scott knew she was wondering if he was feeling bad about what they’d just done and he shrugged his shoulders. “I’m okay with it, she’s not around to be upset with me for doing it and I _really_ did need that.” He admitted. “But Alyssa, I can’t sleep with you. I can’t bring a child into this world because I know it won’t be around for much longer.” He told her. “The Locust are gaining ground every day and it’s only a matter of time before they reach Jacinto, we can’t stop them.”

They stared at each other for a while and he could tell she was formulating some kind of response from the way she was chewing on her lip in a worrying type of way. “Scott, believe me the last thing I want to do is have another kid. I’ve had nine in the ten years I’ve been here and every time they take it from me and don’t allow me to see it. Ever. You don’t know how attached you become to something until it grows inside of you and then once it’s out you never get to see it again.”

She looked down at her bare feet and took in a shuddering breath. “I want to leave this place, but Doctor Vickers told me I’m a COG asset and until I can’t produce any children I’m not going anywhere. He also told me that if I refuse to deliver any more children that he’s going to put my ten-year-old daughter through hormone therapy and impregnate her. That’s what they do with the girls here, when they reach ten years old, they speed up their body’s reproductive development and use artificial insemination.”

Scott wasn’t usually one that was taken aback by things but that was certainly something that he hadn’t expected to hear. He’d done a lot of nasty shit during the Pendulum Wars as a special forces soldier, things he wasn’t really proud of, but what Alyssa was describing was beyond any of that.

“That’s not even the end of it. If you don’t start sleeping with me they’ll just throw me back to Security Chief Tramlyn and I’ll go back to having him forcing himself on me every night. I don’t know the things you face out there, but I can’t help but think it can’t be any worse than the hell I have to face in here.” She gave a defeated shrug and let out a shaky breath. “I don’t have a whole lot of good options Scott, just bad and worse.”

Scott didn’t know this woman at all. Up until a few hours earlier he didn’t even know she existed and now here they were talking about him having to impregnate her and the consequences she’d face if he didn’t. He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of fucked up rabbit hole he had fallen into to wind up here. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was terrified, he could see it plainly on her face.

“Alyssa,” he said before pausing and thinking out his next few words. “I’m going to be here for a full month, this is an awful lot for me to take in so please just hear me out?” He asked her. “Let me think this over for a couple days okay?”

She nodded her head a few times. “I’m sorry, I know this is a lot but you…you’re different than the other Gears I’ve dealt with that come through this place every few months. Normally the moment they see me standing near a bed they’ve got their pants down and me bent over something before they even take their armor off.” Her voice was dull and somber.

She sounded so defeated and it made Scott feel horrible and he didn’t know why. How was it that he could be totally at peace with what had happened on the couch but also feel like such an ass about not being able to help this woman in the way she wanted him to?

“The best I can do right now is make sure Tramlyn keeps his hands off of you and your daughter. That I can promise, and not to get your hopes up but I might be able to get you and her out of this place. I mean you’re a COG asset after all and I am the COG.” He said grinning at her.

A smile returned to her face, it wasn’t the full on one she’d had when she walked out of the shower but it was better than the defeated look she’d adopted afterwards. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. Scott hesitated for a few seconds but ultimately returned the hug. She pressed the side of her face to his chest and sighed deeply. “You don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve had someone hold me like this and for me to not be afraid.” She pulled away from him and grabbed him by the hand and lead him towards the bed.

“Even if you’re not going to fuck me you can at least lay with me and make me feel safe while I sleep.” She said over her shoulder to him.

“Yeah, I can do that.” He agreed as she pulled back the blankets and they both climbed under them. The mattress was softer than anything Scott had slept on in years, even the one in his apartment in Jacinto City wasn’t as good as this one was. He let out a very content sigh as he laid back in the pillows and the blonde beside him could only laugh as she situated herself next to him. She let one arm fall over his torso and nestled her face into his neck and it was her turn to sigh.

For some reason Scott automatically found himself stroking her hair as if it was something the two of them did regularly and he noted how Alyssa didn’t seem to mind it at all.

“So,” She asked him quietly. “You know what I was doing on E-Day, where were you?”

Scott looked up at the ceiling and a genuine smile came over his face at the memory. “I was banging my neighbor.”


	5. Chapter 5

**0200 hours, Archangel, Tyrus – A few hours before Emergence Day**

Weeks of relentless flirting and teasing had ultimately worn Scott down to accepting an invitation to join Chelsea and her friends for a night of celebration. That in turn had led to where he was now; smacking the headboard of his bed against the wall as he threw everything he had into the thrusts of his hips while she writhed underneath his much larger frame. He was about two-hundred and twenty pounds of pure muscle, she was barely one-hundred and ten, yet she begged, pleaded even, for him to go harder and faster.

Her nails dug into his chest and back and anywhere else she grabbed onto him as her legs either wrapped around him and pulled him into her or just locked up as her body spasmed repeatedly. When she wasn’t kissing him, she was just staring up at him in a way that Scott could only describe as awestruck and it was a very motivating thing.

The raven-haired woman was very captivated by the COG tags around his neck and every once and a while they would slide down and dangle around his neck and she would catch them with her teeth and let out the most excited laugh and smile. Scott had to admit that Chelsea was not what he’d expected her to be in bed, all of their previous interactions had been overall quiet and normal. She hadn’t struck him as this wild thing he now had in his bed.

He was slamming himself against her so hard at this point that the smack of their bodies was almost as loud as the headboard and she still wanted more out of him. Scott knew that if he gave her what he wanted he might very well break her slender frame, but he was positive she was going to be sore later on in the morning once they were done.

Her breathing began to quicken and she arched her back at such a severe angle he though her spine was going to snap. She let out her loudest pleasure induced cry yet and her arms and legs wrapped around him like she never wanted to let go. Scott gave one hard shove into the warmth between her legs as muscles clamped down around his length and spasmed.

“Don’t stop, don’t stop.” She panted over and over, her pale skin turning a rosy pink as her body flushed with arousal.

He flipped her onto her stomach and continued to give her long, deep lunges rather than the rapid pounding she’d been getting previously. He growled liked a crazed animal in her ear, reveling in the way her flesh rippled under the impact of his body. He gripped her face with his right hand and she quickly wrapped her ruby colored lips around his index finger and moaned louder.

Her left hand reached up to the headboard, just for something to hold onto and Scott did the same, placing his hand over hers and interlocking their fingers. She looked up over her shoulder at him, making eye contact and that was all it took for Scott in that moment. He pressed his lips firmly to hers and erupted violently inside of her, slamming into her with five of the hardest thrusts yet and each one capped off with a strong burst of his seed.

Once the last drop had left him he just laid on top of her, kissing her much more gently now as they tried to catch their breath, he back rising up into his chest with each deep lungful of air they took in between kisses.

She let her head drop down onto the mattress with a very satisfied smirk on her face and let out an exhausted “Wow.”

Scott silently kissed the back of her neck and shoulder blade before rolling off of her with a heavy sigh. It was the first night in a very long time where he hadn’t thought about the army or what his old squadmates were doing. He wasn’t thinking about the circumstances that had gotten him discharged from the COG. Instead he was thinking about the very big smile he had put on the face of the woman beside him.

“That was like, what? Five times?” She asked him. She had still yet to open her eyes and her legs kept shifting around on the bed before she ultimately linked them with his. “That’s a new record for me.” Her eyes finally opened and she looked up at him with an expression that could only be described as extreme contentment.

Scott grinned at her as she slowly curled up beside him and traced the outline of his torso muscles with her index finger. “Might be one for me too.” He said as he laid his head back into the pillows.

“What was I doing with my life messing around with all these musicians and poets. I should have been dating a Gear.” She laughed.

He looked down at her and studied her face for a few seconds. He wasn’t sure what this relationship between them was becoming but he knew better than to try and figure it out while they were both drunk. He rolled onto his side and ran his hand down the side of her face and gave her a soft kiss, which she returned.

It wasn’t too much longer before they both passed out, tangled up in each other and the blankets. It was the best sleep of his life. For too long he’d spent countless nights in stiff cots or out in the elements running on military rations and filtered water, but then his alarm clock went off shattering the peacefulness with a remorseless abruptness. Chelsea groaned, but not in the sultry way she had been hours earlier. Her hand reached over and slammed down on the clock a couple of times before she let her head collapse back onto the bed.

“What kind of sadist wakes up at five in the morning?” She grumbled.

“One trained by the army.” He replied as he ran his hand over his face. Military life had made him a creature of habit and he was used to waking up before the sun was up. There was no way he was going to be getting back to that realm of peaceful sleep he’d been ripped out of. “Go back to sleep.”

He looked down at her and laughed quietly because she was already out like a light again. He climbed out of the bed and stretched before changing into his jogging gear, a shower could wait until he was done with his morning run.

Even at this early hour there were still people out celebrating the end of the war. It was going on six weeks since the Pendulum War had been won by the COG and the parties showed no signs of stopping. The sanitation department of Archangel were definitely earning their paychecks with how hard they were working to keep the streets clean. He nodded to the driver of a street sweeper as it went down the road.

Most people wouldn’t be up this early, let alone out jogging, after drinking as much as he had the previous night. He’d done a good job hydrating though throughout the night, Chelsea wasn’t going to be doing nearly as well he suspected. The cool, early morning air helped him to clear his head and think and damn if he didn’t have a lot to think about this morning. Ever since they’d met at the window in the hallway of their apartment there had been nothing but endless flirting and teasing between the two of them, and she’d made several attempts to get him to go out and take part in the celebrations.

He’d simply just run out of reason to turn her down and he was glad that he did, but that being said he decided it was still best to take things slow and see how they played out. The usual four block run around the neighborhood seemed to not take as long as it usually did while he was thinking about the woman out cold in his bed. As Scott returned home the sun was starting to rise and the other occupants of the building were beginning to stir.

Scott walked down the hallway just in time for the door next to his to open and one of the elderly couple who lived next to him, the old man this time, stepped out and grinned at him.

“Wish they fed us whatever they feed you Gears nowadays when I was in the army.” He said slapping Scott on the shoulder. “Quite the performance, son.” He made his way down the hallway to start his day and left Scott standing there feeling a bit embarrassed and also very proud of himself.

Scott unlocked his door and slipped into his apartment with all the stealth of a highly trained commando only to find Chelsea still sleeping soundly and having taken up the entirety of the bed. He quietly crept by her and into the bathroom where he began to undress and climbed into the shower. He wasn’t in there very long, just long enough to wake himself up for the day and shake the sleep from his eyes. Despite the long and active night he’d had, Scott was feeling pretty good as he climbed out of the shower and toweled off.

He changed into a pair of gray cargo pants and a plain black t-shirt and made is way into the kitchen to make some coffee. It wasn’t much later when the aroma of fresh brewing coffee filled the apartment that he heard movement in the bedroom. Chelsea came out into the open, her thick hair knotted and just a mess. Her makeup was streaked down her face and her movements were sluggish. She’d wrapped the bedsheet around herself as she made her way over to where he was in the kitchen.

She looked up at him and let out disgruntled groan. “How in the blue hell are you so bright eyed and bushy-tailed after last night?” She said exhaustedly.

“Because I stayed hydrated last night,” He grinned as he slid her a cup of coffee. “I remember telling you to do the same all night.”

She took the coffee in both hands and inhaled the scent of it before doing anything else. “I remember doing exactly that.”

“I meant with water, not more vodka.” He laughed.

“Hey, liquid is liquid right?” She shrugged her shoulders and fixed him with that half smirk that she’d used to win him over the other night.

“Not really.” He said leaning against his countertop and watching her as she drank the coffee. “You should know something, our little hook up last night didn’t go unnoticed by the neighbors. The old man congratulated me when I was coming back from my run.”

She let her head drop down to the countertop with a sigh. “Fuck, guess I’ll be making the walk of shame shortly.” She looked up at him. “How did you have the stamina to go running after all we had just done?”

He winked at her. “Endurance training.”

She let out a short “Uh huh.” Before finishing her coffee. “I’d hate to be that girl who fucks and slips away the next morning, but I’ll be heading home shortly. Can’t shower here because I’ll wind up smelling like a Gear.” She grinned.

Scott nodded his head. Sure he would have liked her to stick around for a while longer but he wasn’t going to force her to. She made her way back to the bedroom and found the clothing she’d been wearing before he’d removed it from her body. It was just a black minidress, nothing too fancy, but it sure had caught his eye with the way it hugged her frame. She was brushing the knots out of her hair and must have seen how he was eyeing her.

“Don’t get any ideas big guy.” She laughed as she pulled her hair back into a tail and walked up to him, putting her hands flat against his chest. “There will be plenty of time for more of that later, maybe next time I’ll bring some of my shower stuff over so I won’t have to leave right away.” She said under her breath and standing up on her tippy-toes to press her lips to his in a quick, gentle kiss before turning and heading to the door.

Scott watched her go and let out a long sigh when he was alone in his apartment. He settled down onto his couch and turned on his television to take in some of the news for the day. Most of it was still centered on the resolution of the Pendulum Wars and the assimilation of Ostri, Pelles and other UIR nations into the COG. There was some talk about the ongoing hostilities with Gorasnaya and the small band of UIR holdouts.

As long as there were holdouts there would always be ongoing skirmishes. With the way things were now Scott figured it would be special forces conducting those skirmishes. With the world no longer at war for the first time in almost a century the COGs civilian population wouldn’t be in favor of large scale engagements and the politicians had to know that. It was the first time that his old unit had entered his mind that day and some of that anger and resentment towards COG command came with it.

It was one thing to be a former Gear on Victory Day but it was an entirely different thing to be an active Gear on Victory Day. He hadn’t felt like he’d helped to end the war even though he’d fought in it for a large portion of his adult life. He was bitter and angry that his supervisors had felt he was letting the stress of combat get to him and ripped away that ultimate feeling of success from him just months before the end of the war. He wondered what Niko, Tirut, Natto, Ian, Keller and the rest of Sigma Company were up to at that moment. For all he knew they were in town since the Ninety-First was based in Archangel out of Redfield Airbase.

In all reality though they were most likely deployed to one of the countries still fighting the COG working on a way to destabilize it and bring it down to where it would relent and surrender to the Coalition. He spent the next couple hours stewing in his own self pity before there was a knock on his door. He stood up and shut his TV off and made his way to the door, ready to tell off some door to door salesman trying to pawn off cheap victory merchandise. There were hundreds of those people doing that out on the streets.

He opened the door and was met by a dressed and showered Chelsea, but she didn’t look all that happy. She’d changed into a pair of jeans, a white shirt and a gray cardigan complete with a pair of sunglasses.

“Hey, sorry to bother you but my sink isn’t working and I was wondering if you could take a look at it?” She asked him. “I’m just too hungover to deal with that creep landlord today.”

Instantly his frustrations were forgotten and the corner of his mouth twisted upwards in a grin that would have been completely foreign there a few seconds ago. “Yeah I can take a look at it. What’s wrong with it?”

“The garbage disposal won’t work and the drain has some kind of mega clog that all those chemical solutions in the stores won’t even touch.” She sighed.

“Alright, let’s see what I can do.” He said as he walked out into the hall with her and locked up his own door. “Seems like last night finally caught up with you.” He grinned as they started walking back towards her apartment.

“Fuck yeah it did.” She said looking up at him. “I’m sore _all_ over. Not that that’s a bad thing.” It was her turn to grin at him.

She opened up the door to her apartment and Scott was surprised to find that it was messier than his, but not in an off-putting way. Her things weren’t just as ordered as his, which like most of his behavioral habits came from his time in the army. Her apartment was the exact same layout as his so finding the sink wasn’t too hard to find.

Upon a quick inspection he determined that her sink was indeed ‘mega clogged’ as she had so aptly described it. He then checked the disposal and discovered it wouldn’t even engage. “I’ll start with the clog, that will probably be the easier of the two to fix.” He said looking over his shoulder at her.

She gave him a thumbs up as she leaned over her kitchen counter and removed her sunglasses. “I think there are some tools in the closet. One of my exes thought he was a handyman, he’s probably the one who broke all that stuff.”

“Well lucky for you I’m pretty good with my hands.” He said with a wink as he went over to the closet and found a small toolbox in the far corner of it. He also found an Archangel Sabers cap that looked to be in pretty good shape.

“I hope I’m not bothering you or anything with this.” She said to him as he opened the box and examined what was inside of it. The selection of tools was sparse but he figured it would do.

“Oh no, I was just watching the news and getting caught up in old war memories.” He said as he set the box down on the counter beside the sink and opened the cupboards beneath it. “In fact, you’re doing me a favor by giving me something else to do right now. You a Sabers fan?”

“You kind of have to be if you’re living in this city.” She grinned as she took the cap and set it on his head. “Bought it for my handyman ex, but it looks good on you too.” She grinned.

He turned it so it was facing backwards so it would be out of his way while he worked. After a few minutes of fiddling with the sink he just decided to remove the whole elbow joint and discovered that it was packed full of what he could only call gunk. He had to use a long screwdriver to get it out of the joint and when he started moving it around it created a…pungent odor. Right away Chelsea began to gag and motioned towards her couch. “I’m gonna go sit down over there.” She said as she backed away from the kitchen.

It was far from the foulest thing he’d ever handled and he wasn’t going to let the smell get to him in front of Chelsea. Five minutes, and one ruined sense of smell later, Scott had cleaned out the elbow joint and then replaced it. He ran the faucet and the water ran right through the now clean pipe. He washed his hands and walked over to where she was sitting and watching her own TV. She was watching some over the top soap opera.

“Well I fixed your drain.” He said as he watched the scene unfolding on the screen in front of them. “Don’t know if I can help with your taste in TV shows though.”

“Shut up.” She laughed as she stood up and went over to inspect his work. She tested the faucet just like he had and nodded. “Alright, you fixed the sink now what about the garbage disposal.” She said turning and leaning against the counter.

“I’ll get it working, but I think we should maybe figure out my payment for the services rendered here.” He grinned as he walked up to her and put his hands on either side of the counter.

“Oh really?” She replied raising her eyebrow a bit and placing her arms around his waist. “How about lunch? I’ll order us some food and we can sit on the couch and maybe find some more things for you to fix.” She smiled up at him.

He nodded his head. “Lunch is good.”

She laughed softly and walked out of his arms to her phone and placed their lunch order, sitting back on the couch as she did so. Scott sat down beside her and fixed his gaze on the TV screen and the cheesy show that was playing out on it. This was probably the most normal thing he’d done with another person since becoming a civilian. In all honesty it felt kind of weird, not wrong but he still wasn’t completely used to it.

“Hope you don’t mind Kashkuri food.” She said hanging up the phone and looking over at him. “You okay?” She asked him. “You look kind of tense all of the sudden.”

“Yeah, just still getting used to being a civilian I guess.” He admitted. “It’s been a while since I’ve just sat around with someone and just had lunch or anything like that.”

“What did you do during the war?” She asked him, her tone getting serious as she turned her body to face him and propped her head up on one arm.

“Well,” Scott began trying to find a way to tell her what he did without giving up classified information. “I served in a special unit in the COG army, the public term is special forces. I received a lot of specialized training that average Gears didn’t get, survivalist training and enhanced combat training.” That was all matter of public record, the COG had publicly recruited people for its commando units. Any citizen who thought they could cut it just needed to apply. “Once all that was done it was mostly sitting in the barracks with other Gears harassing each other until we were deployed. When that happened it was…intense.”

She was quiet for a moment and looked down at the sofa. “You must have killed more Indies than a regular Gear. That had to have been hard on you, kind of explains a lot.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She repeated. “Like why you were so jumpy and avoiding everyone when you first moved in. At least you’re coming out of your shell.” Chelsea said and gave him a warm smile before climbing up into his lap and kissing him. “If this is moving too fast for you, just let me know.” She said when she pulled away from him.

All of Scott’s previous feelings about taking things slow went out the window. He felt different with her around, he actually felt at peace. He shook his head. “I need this.” Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth she was kissing him again and moving her hips rhythmically against his lap. “Aren’t you sore?” He said breathlessly.

“I’m a big girl, I can handle it.” She said back as she removed her cardigan and tossed it across the room. That was as far as they got though. A sharp tone ran through her TV jolting them both from what they had been doing. Chelsea twisted in his lap to look at the screen behind them and they both watched as an urgent news report cut into the show that had been on before it.

_“GCN has received several reports from it’s affiliates across the Coalition that there have been multiple large scale attacks. We’re working to confirm these reports, but as of right now we can only confirm that the city of Jannermont has in fact been attacked and we’re receiving word of massive casualties.”_ The reporter on the TV said calmly.

Chelsea let out a sharp intake of breath. “My parents live in Jannermont!” She said as she bolted up from his lap and dove for the phone and hurriedly pressed the buttons.

Scott just stood up and watched not sure what to make of this. Gorasnaya didn’t have the infrastructure to mount wide scale attacks such as the ones being reported. Had Ostri and Pelles pulled a fast one on Chairman Dalyell? If they had then the hellstorm they were going to be facing was one of unimaginable proportions.

“They’re not picking up!” Chelsea shrieked as she walked back over to the TV.

_“We can confirm that these attacks are worldwide and not just focused on Tyrus.”_ The reporter. _“The cities of Bonbourg, Porra, Shavad, Andros and Seiden have all come under attack in what appears to be a highly coordinated offensive. As of yet there has been no response from the office of Chairman Dalyell.”_

“This doesn’t make sense.” Scott said. “It can’t be the UIR, Bonbourg, Seiden, Andros, why would they attack their own cities?” He said walking over to Chelsea and putting an arm around her. “I’ll be right back.” He said kissing the side of her head as he sat her down on the couch. “You stay right here.”

Something told him he needed his sidearm and commando knife. He calmly left her apartment but once he was in the hallway he sprinted to his apartment and into his bedroom and the trunk where he kept the things he’d brought home from the war. Archangel was a port city and held a sizeable military garrison just like Jannermont and that meant it was at the same risk of attack.

He only had two clips of ammo for the snub pistol, three if he counted the one already loaded in it. He placed it snugly in his waistband and rushed back to Chelsea’s apartment. She looked even more terrified now than she did when he’d left.

“They just said Kinnerlake, Ilima and even Ephyra is now under attack.” She said standing up as he entered the room.

“Shit.” He said standing beside her in front of the TV. “Kinnerlake isn’t but a few hours drive from here. Have they said anything about who is responsible for the attacks?”

She shook her head. “What do we do?” She looked up at him in sheer terror.

Scott thought on it for the moment. “Right now we stay off the streets, it’ll be a panic out there. If anything should happen here then we make our way to the airbase. I’ll be able to talk us past the guards and we should be safe there. Until then we just sit tight and see what the GCN reports have to say.”

_We’ll need as much information as we can get for when the attack does come._ He thought to himself as he put his arms around her.


	6. Chapter 6

**1230 Hours, Northbay Birthing Creche, Jacinto Plateau – Three Months after the Battle of Ephyra**

As Scott finally began to stir from the sleep that had been long overdue something caught his attention and for a moment he thought he was still dreaming. He could smell brewing coffee. He groaned as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and sat up in the bed and looked around the room.

He hadn’t forgotten where he was or what had happened the previous night, he was still trying to process all of the information that had been dumped on him and maybe coffee would help with that. As if on cue the blonde woman he’d been assigned as a breeding partner, something that was so surreal to him even in a world overrun by monsters that lived inside the planet, walked into the bedroom and smiled at him while handing him a large cup of the delicious drink he hadn’t had for a few years.

Scott took the cup of coffee with a nod and took a long sip before letting out long, savoring sigh. “Where do you get this stuff?!” He asked her looking from the cup and up at her. She laughed and shrugged her shoulders as she sat down on the side of the bed. She’d changed into a pair of faded blue jeans and a white t-shirt under a blue flannel. The clothes weren’t new by any means, but they certainly smelled far cleaner that the clothes people had in Jacinto.

“Like I said last night; somewhere off the coast.” Alyssa said. “Figured you’d like some when you woke up, you sure must have been tired it’s almost noon.”

“Shit, I slept that late?” He said taking another pull from the coffee cup. “What about the others?”

“None of them are up yet either.” She said. “I guess you all needed rest.”

Scott couldn’t begin to tell her how true that statement was. Most Gears ran on minimal sleep on cots that might as well have been made of concrete and shitty food rations. This place was fucking paradise, or it would have been if its uglier parts had been left unknown.

“I would have made you breakfast but the stove in here doesn’t work, none of them do so you’ll have to head down to the cafeteria building.” She said standing up and walking over to the table where he’d left his things. “I took your clothes down to the laundry and brought you some of the fatigues Vickers keeps on hand. I also cleaned up some of your gear.”

Scott climbed out of the bed and walked over to the table to inspect everything. She had indeed scrubbed a lot of the dried blood and dirt from his armor and having done that himself often enough he knew how much of a pain in the ass it could be. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“It gave me something to do while you slept and kept me away from Tramlyn.” She said nodding towards the large sidearm on the table. “Is that a Locust weapon? Doesn’t look like something a Gear would carry.”

Scott nodded his head. “Yeah, it’s a Boltok pistol, took it off the first grub I killed on E-Day. Packs a much bigger punch than the snub pistol that’s COG standard issue.” He said as he pulled his body armor over to him and examined it a little more. “What’s the deal with Tramlyn and you?” He asked her.

“Well,” She said letting out a long sigh. “He’s a predator and I’m his prey. Tramlyn thinks I belong to him and its been that way since he first set foot in this place. Northbay wasn’t always a hellhole, for the first couple years it was actually pretty nice but then the Gears that were originally stationed here were redeployed.”

“And the COG didn’t think this place was in need of more Gears to replace them because of its location on the Jacinto Plateau.” Scott said.

Alyssa nodded. “I guess, but they replaced them with guards from The Slab and it all went to hell. Don’t get me wrong not all of the guards are bad, that Jansen kid is alright and a few of the others too, but Tramlyn is the alpha of a particularly nasty bunch of guys.”

Scott set his armor down on the table and gave Alyssa a grin. “Well you’re in luck because I’m the alpha of an even nastier group of guys, we’re just more selective of who we’re nasty to.” He cast a glance around the room. “Where are those fatigues you brought up for me?”

She pointed towards the bathroom and Scott went in there to change. The fatigues were just simple black COG fatigues, nothing fancy. When he re-emerged she handed him his Sabers cap, which was now also clean of any crud or blood.

“Thanks.” He said as he placed it on his head and then grabbed his earpiece and placed it back inside his ear. “Alright, time to get to work.”

He pulled his equipment belt around his waist and holstered the Boltok in the small of his back, his commando knife was sheathed on his right hip. He could feel Alyssa’s eyes wandering over him as he geared up. She had pinned a lot of hopes on him and he wasn’t sure he could live up to all of them. Hell he was positive about not being able to deliver on a couple of them.

The pregnancy thing wasn’t something he was open to even considering right now, but he couldn’t just let a ten year old girl be put through the things Alyssa claimed she’d be. First things first was to figure out what was fact and what was fiction. Scott knew what he had to do today and decided on leaving his body armor in the room.

He pressed his finger into his earpiece. “Ian, you got your ears in?” He called to the Kashkuri sniper before letting out a grunt. “Lazy bastard. I need to speak with Doctor Vickers,” He said to her as he started walking for the door. “I have to get some clarification on somethings, my squadmate is down the hall right?”

“Yeah, last door on the left.”

Scott left the room and went down to the door Alyssa had pointed out and gave it a few hard knocks. “Ian get your shit on, we’ve got work to do!” He said to the door. To his surprise it opened almost instantly and Ian stepped out into the hallway, his shirt in his hand.

“About time you woke your sorry ass up Sarge,” He said. “Did you cut your hair? Looks nice.”

“Shut up.” Scott said as he turned and started back down the hallway. “Get the rest of the team up and out of bed. I’m going to send you and Greg out in a bit to do some scouting around the town, make sure Northbay is as empty as the COG thinks it is.”

“If there’s any grubs out there me and the kid will sniff ‘em out.” He said pulling on his shirt and then noticed Alyssa was trailing slightly behind them. “What’s with the blonde?”

“Roommate.” Scott said simply. “She’s going to show you where the others are sleeping, I want everyone in the cafeteria in five minutes.”

“Where are you going?” Ian said.

“To have some words with the Doc and get some answers. Shouldn’t take too long.” No Scott knew exactly what he was going to ask and the things he was going to demand, the conversation would be short. “Stay out of trouble until I meet you in the cafeteria.”

“You talkin’ to me or her?” Ian said hooking a thumb over his shoulder at Alyssa.

Scott looked over his shoulder at them. “Both of you.” That was the easiest answer he’d be able to give all day. While Alyssa navigated Ian around the housing building Scott made his way out of it and across the green back to the administration building. He could feel the eyes on him as he crossed the open area and he was sure that every intent was different. Some of the glances were appraising, the others excited, some fearful and even some untrusting.

It wasn’t unwarranted based off of what Scott had been told by Alyssa. The majority of Gears that came through here didn’t treat any of these women like people but more like cattle and they had no reason to think he and his group were going to be any different. It was just another reminder that this place wasn’t everything it appeared to be, for him and his Gears it was fucking heaven but to the women who had to live here it was at best a prison and at worst an unbelievable hell.

Scott didn’t have any trouble finding the office of the good Doctor Vickers once he was inside the admin building, it was only a one level structure after all. He had to wave off the pregnant secretary as she tried to sit up to meet him before he got to the doctor’s office door.

“Sir the doctor can’t see you right now.” She said, though it wasn’t in a way that sounded like she was truly trying to stop him, but just enough to say she’d done her job.

Despite the mild refusal of the pregnant secretary, Scott strolled into the office and Vickers stood up from behind his desk rather quickly. “Sergeant Hollan!” he said. “I don’t believe we had an appointment scheduled for today.”

“No,” Scott said shutting the door behind him and eying the doctor suspiciously. “Considering that I only got in last night and spoke to you for less than a couple minutes, I didn’t have the time to make one.” He crossed his arms and gave the doctor a once over and noticed that the man’s pants were undone. He let out a huff of air and started walking towards the desk and Vickers began to protest.

“Shut it.” Scott said as he walked behind the desk and found a woman tucked away under it. “Ma’am you can go now.” He said before turning a very unfriendly gaze towards the old doctor. The woman didn’t need to be told twice and quickly scurried out of the office and Scott pointed at the chair Vickers had been sitting in. “Put your old wrinkled ass in that seat and don’t you move until I’m done talking.”

**0100 Hours, Northbay Birthing Creche Cafeteria, Jacinto Plateau – Three Months after the Battle of Ephyra**

It was amazing watching how the seven Gears devoured the food in front of them. These men were all built like tanks, some of them more than the others, but they were all eating like they hadn’t had any food in months. It wasn’t until Alyssa had inquired why they all seemed so ravenous that she’d found out why they were shoveling down food as much as they were.

The big Islander had handed her a ration bar that was standard issue for frontline Gears. All he said to her was a gruff “That’s why.”

So, she tore off the top portion of the wrapper and pinched a piece of the gelatinous bar and gave it a sniff. It didn’t smell like anything at all and that worried her for some reason, but she popped the piece into her mouth and instantly felt her face contort into an expression of shear revulsion. There was laughter from the Gears watching her and some from the other ladies at the table too

“Oh, it can’t be that bad!” Van said as she took the rest of the bar from Alyssa and broke off a bigger piece. “You’re just being a baby.” Then she ate the section of ration bar and quickly fell to the same reaction that Alyssa had before spitting it out. At least Alyssa was brave enough to swallow hers.

“Fuck, you guys actually eat that shit?!” She said grabbing her coffee and downing it to try and get rid of the taste. “What the hell is in that?”

“Nutrients.” Ian said around a mouthful of eggs. “pulled from hydroponics at North Gate. It’s the best we can do without solid farmland to raise animals.”

“Damn.” She said shaking her head. “And you guys got that big off of that stuff?”

“That and the constant exercise we get from chasing grubs all around the Plateau perimeter.” Dax said from across the table. “It’s great cardio.”

Alyssa knew right then that a lot of the Gears at the table didn’t share Scott’s aversion to intercourse because most of the women at the table were seated next to the man they had been paired with and they all smirked or giggled at that cardio remark. Mention of the grubs seemed to take the wind out of the other Gears at the table though and Alyssa found herself thinking about Scott’s view of how the war was going and that it was only a matter of time before the Locust won the war. She could tell by the way the Gears were now slowly chewing their food and looking rather grim that they all felt the same way.

She didn’t want to believe it but these men were the ones out there dying and fighting against those monsters so they would know better than anyone. The people in this creche had been so insulated from the war, even ten years into it, Alyssa had never so much as seen a live Locust drone in person. She’d only ever seen the news reports before that whole network had fallen apart in the early days of the conflict.

“Is it really as bad out there as your sergeant says it is?” She asked the Gears and they all looked towards the Kashkuri sniper. It seemed he was the second in command of this whole group.

“It’s bad.” He said as he looked around the cafeteria. “Where the hell is he anyway, how much could he possibly have to talk about with the doctor?”

“The Doc isn’t much of a conversationalist.” Van said. “If your man went to talk to him then it wasn’t ever going to be a long talk.”

“Sarge isn’t either.” Ian said but then his posture changed and he sat up straighter and his finger went to his ear and his face took on a slightly puzzled look. “Speak of the devil, alright Gears the Sarge wants us to report to the admin building. Ladies you’re coming too.”

Dax stood up and stretched his arms wide, cracking his back and groaning at the same time. “Now we have to walk? I thought we came here for a vacation?!”

“Sounds like that’s over now.” Ian said as he got up from the table and the rest followed suit. Normally a summons to the admin building always made a ball of ice form in the pit of any woman’s stomach but it wasn’t there now for Alyssa, not with the current company surrounding her.

She was walking beside Dax as they left the cafeteria and headed across the central green to the admin building. “Aren’t you a sergeant too?” She asked him.

He nodded his head. “Yeah, for all of two days. Sergeant Hollan has been an NCO for going on ten years. Him and the rest of Sigma-Two are one of the only intact commando units the COG has left, me and my guys are happy to let them take the lead here.”

So there was a reason that Scott and his squad looked a lot more dangerous than the other Gears, because they were more dangerous. That was good to know. When they entered the admin building the group was directed to one of the meeting rooms where Doctor Vickers got routine updates from the department heads in the creche. Scott was already there with Vickers and a half dozen of the security guards.

Tramlyn never failed to put that icy ball in her stomach, even surrounded by Gears who weren’t about to let him touch her in their presence. She felt his eyes searching her like they always did when they were in the same room and it made her nauseous. The Gears all fell in line behind Scott, who didn’t look happy at all. She wasn’t so happy herself once she saw that all of the other security guards were the ones that made up Tramlyn’s cabal of rapists and abusers. She was also suddenly aware of how cramped the room was with all of these people in it and that if something happened in here that she and the rest of the girls were probably going to get caught up in it.

“What are we doing here?” Tramlyn said as he kept his eyes on Alyssa while the women placed themselves behind the Gears. “Shouldn’t you all be busy right now repopulating the world?”

“First things first,” Scott said pointing at Tramlyn. “You don’t say another word until I tell you to. I’m enacting the civilian requisition provision of the Fortification Act and am taking control of this Northbay facility.”

“You can’t do that!” Tramlyn yelled at Scott.

“Actually I can. This facility is a civilian facility, there is no permanent COG fixture and under the requisition provision I can appropriate it and its occupants for my needs if I deem it necessary.”

“Only the COG can do that though, you’re just some sergeant!” Tramlyn cried. Alyssa could see that the man knew this was bad news for him and his cronies.

“I am the COG!” Scott roared at Tramlyn. “I’ve already cleared it with COG Command. I recommended this course of action and since I have some pull with higher ups they are sanctioning this decision. So I’m now in charge here and that means changes to how this place operates. Doctor Vickers will remain in charge of reproduction efforts and I’m not changing anything there, what I am changing though is how security staff treat the facility assets.”

He fixed his eyes firmly on Tramlyn. “You and your buddies are no longer allowed to force yourselves on these women without their consent. Your rape factory is shut down as of now.” He looked over his shoulder at the women behind him. “If anyone lays a hand on you without your permission, including my Gears, you are to report it to me.”

“Whats stopping us from ignoring your bullshit rules Hollan?” Tramlyn challenged Scott as he stepped closer to the Gear. “I mean there are eight of you and a lot more of us.”

Scott smirked and Alyssa felt that it was in a way that a wolf would at a newborn lamb. “Well if you do lay a hand, and I mean so much as a fucking finger, on any of these women against their will then I’m going to hurt you. Very badly.”

Tramlyn made the mistake of closing the distance between himself and Scott and the instant he was within a hairsbreadth of the Gear commando, Tramlyn found himself being flattened by what he had to have thought was a cinderblock at first. Alyssa let out an audible gasp at the sound of Scott’s fist connecting with the side of Tramlyn’s face but the high-pitched yelp Tramlyn made only brought her pure joy. Before the other guards could react Ian, Dax and the rest of the Gears had their sidearms drawn and aimed at them.

Scott knelt down over Tramlyn, pinning one of his hands under an armored boot and the other under his knee. Then Scott pulled out the large commando knife and pressed the tip against Tramlyn’s cheek. This was not the same man that Alyssa had spent an hour pleasuring the night before, this was the soldier and the survivor of two wars that had stepped off that Raven the previous night.

“I’m only going to tell you this once. Stay away from Alyssa and her daughter or I am going to have my Islander friend over there cut your dick off and nail it above the doorframe of the security building, and that’ll be the least painful thing I do to you I can promise you that.”

“Ladies, would you do us a favor and step out of the room. You too Doc.” Ian said without taking his eyes off the other guards. Alyssa didn’t want to leave the spectacle that she was seeing. The man who had made her life a total hell was finally getting what he deserved and she didn’t want to miss a second of it, but Van caught her arm and dragged her out of the room.

The last thing she saw before leaving was Scott standing up and then stomping on Tramlyn’s forearm, hearing a loud crack and Tramlyn shrieking in pain. Vickers went back to his office, visibly shaken, while Alyssa and the other women made their way out to the green and took a seat at the benches and just stared at each other for a couple quiet seconds.

“So, did he make things worse or better for us?” Van said out loud. Everyone looked at Alyssa and all she could do was shrug.

“Short term I think it’s for the better, long term…I don’t know.” She said. Scott wasn’t going to be here forever and when he was eventually pulled to face a more dangerous threat, Tramlyn and his boys would take over again and it was most likely going to be far worse than it was before.

All she could think about was that Scott wasn’t making changes to the reproduction methods. Did that mean that Jenna was still eligible for insemination? She had a whole lot of questions that conflicted with the sheer joy she was feeling for what had happened to Tramlyn.

The door to the admin building opened and the Gears came spilling out looking rather pleased with themselves. Alyssa stood up and nodded towards the Gears. “Come on girls, looks like you all have some consent to give.” She grinned at the group as they walked back over to the Gears.

Scott was flexing his hand as she approached him with her arms behind her back. “You’ve got a nice right cross.” She grinned at him. “Thank you for that, just so you know clocking Tramlyn has earned you permanent consent from me, ya know…whenever you’re interested in that.”

Scott laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Can we talk? I’ve got some questions.” She said nodding down towards the beachhead. He nodded and they both walked down towards the sandy strip where they could talk in private. “So what does this mean for my situation?”

When Scott took in a breath she knew she was about to hear something that she wasn’t going to like. “Alyssa I can’t do anything about your daughter, that’s over my head.”

“But it was Vickers who made that decision, can’t you overrule that now that you’ve taken over the facility?”

“I can’t actually because Vickers didn’t make that decision. The choice to select ten year old girls for hormone therapy was made by the Chairman and his advisors. The Requisition Provision gives me a lot of leeway but I can’t go over the head of Chairman Prescott.” He looked down for a few seconds before looking back up at her. “I am sorry.”

She was upset but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. If the order came from the Chairman then how was one sergeant going to change it. She just turned away from him and looked out at the water. “The girls are nervous that you might have made things worse for us. What happens when you all leave, I mean you’re only here for a couple months right?”

“That was the original plan but after invoking the Requisition Provision I got myself and my squad a prolonged deployment.”

“Even then it’s still not permanent.”

“Damn it I’m not some fucking genie with a magic fix-all for every problem in this fucking place.” He snapped at her. “I’m doing the best I can with the options and assets available to me, I’m sorry that isn’t enough for you, but you and your daughter are not my responsibilities and despite what you may think you’re better off here than in Jacinto.”

She turned her head towards him as a fiery heat came across her chest and she narrowed her eyes. “Probably for the best since anyone who becomes your responsibility either dies or gets abandoned.”

The reaction he had wasn’t the one she had expected to get. She just watched him as he seemed to deflate in front of her. “You’re probably right, now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to try and get a call out to my kid and tell him I won’t be home for a while. You should probably go spend some time with yours, since you have that ability.”


End file.
